Let’s start with the most basic word there is: быть (byt’ – “to be”). Its initial meanings are “to grow” and “to become” – kind of inspirational if you think about it.
Ход (khod – “a move”), on the contrary, used to mean “to sit still,” but the meaning shifted to “to sit while moving (on a horse or in a carriage)”, and now it’s only about movement.
Surprisingly, the word ура (ura – “hooray”) is also about going forward, as it came into the Russian language during the reign of Peter the Great from Middle High German hurren, which in its turn means “to move quickly.” Therefore, hooray stands for “(to move) quickly forward” – again, quite motivational.
How about желать (zhelat’ – “to desire”)? This fancy synonym for “to want” used to mean “to stare” – in awe, apparently. Хотеть (khotet’ – “to want”), on the other hand, was more about taking action – the initial meaning of this word was “to grab,” “to take what you want,” and only later it came down to mere “to want.”
Забава (zabava), a peculiar and old-fashioned word for a fun activity, derives from ancient бавити (baviti – “to make (someone) be here”) and its initial meaning was “to delay, to detain” – the “fun” aspect of it was added later.
Here’s an entire group of words that are surprisingly related: свобода (svoboda – “freedom”), свадьба (svad’ba – “wedding”), and свой (svoi – “your own”). Свобода has the same stem as свой, as its literal meaning was “your own position, separate from others.” In its turn, свадьба derives from сват (svat – “matchmaker”), which also shares the stem with свой.
It’s also fascinating to look up the etymology of words that sound the same but have different meanings: for example, ласка (laska) comes from the now-gone word ласить (lasit’ – “to flatter”) when it stands for “tenderness,” but if we’re talking about ласка the animal (weasel), it derives from Latvian luõss – “yellow-gray”, as this is the color of its fur.
I love the way смородина (smorodina – “currant”) sounds, but its original meaning isn’t as pleasant: it comes down to смердеть (smerdet’ – “to stink”) and смрад (smrad – “stench”) because of the strong smell this plant has. Oh well!
All information above was taken from the online etymology dictionary by Nikolai Shansky, a prominent Russian linguist.
