Was the Word Mestechko Borrowed from the Polish?1
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Lawrence A. COBEN Washington University in St. Louis WAS THE WORD MESTECHKO BORROWED FROM THE POLISH?1 Introduction In the literature on the shtetl, the Russian word for small town — mestechko — (which is the equivalent or near-equivalent of the word shtetl),2 is said to be derived from the Polish word miasteczko (small town).3 Such a derivation is plausible, since the Russian mestechkos were acquired by annexation of lands containing Polish miasteczkos in the three Polish parti- tions of 1772, 1793, and 1795. However, because no documentation has been supplied to support this derivation, it seemed of interest to assess the relationship of mestechko to miasteczko by comparing them in terms of their etymologies and the histories of their usage. 1. For translation assistance, I am grateful to Ms. Masha Sapp, Librarian, Olin Library, Washington University in St. Louis (Russian); and to Ms. Joanna Epstein, Librarian, Widener Library, Harvard University (Polish). For linguistics help, I thank Prof. Michael J. Connolly, Program in Linguistics, Slavic & Eastern Languages & Literatures, Boston College. Special thanks go to Asst. Prof. Kit Condill, University of Illinois, Urbana, Slavic and East European Library, for detailed etymologic information and insight. ,M. ZBOROWSKI) ”(עירה .Shtetl (pl. shtetlakh; Russ: mestechko; Pol. miasteczko; Heb“ .2 Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jerusalem, 1972, q. v. “Shtetl”); J. D. KLIER, “What Exactly Was a Shtetl?”, in G. ESTRAIKH and M. KRUTIKOV (eds), The Shtetl: Image and Reality, Oxford, 2000, p. 23-35; “Mestechko (ot Polbskago ‘myastechko’ — gorodok; idish — shtetl)”, Krat- kaia Evreiskaiia Entsiklopediia, Jerusalem, 1976; “Mestechko (from Polish myastechko — gorodok; in Yiddish — shtetl)” (Elektronnaia Evreiskaia Entsiklopedia, q. v. “Mestecho”, vol. 5, col. 314-321); “Although not all of the shtetls were included in this official category [mestechko in the 1897 census] those included do represent the bulk of the shtetls in the region” (B.-C. PINCHUK, “How Jewish Was The Shtetl”, Polin, 17, 2004, p. 109-118, p. 112). 3. “Gorod, posad, and mestechko… It is the last, a variation on the Polish, that most closely resembles what came to be known as a shtetl — a sort of lesser city with commercial rights but without the urban charters that marked a gorod.” (S. J. ZIPPERSTEIN, “The Shtetl Revisited”, in Shtetl Life: The Nathan and Faye Hurvitz Collection, Berkeley, 1993, p. 17-24, p. 18.) “Russian: mestechko; from the Polish miasteczko” (J. D. KLIER, “Polish Shtetls Under Russian Rule”, Polin, 17, 2004, p. 97-108, p. 98). See also “Mestechko…” (Elektronnaia Evreiskaia Entsiklopedia, q. v. “Mestecho”, vol. 5, col. 314-321); “Mestechko (mestewko, from Polish miasteczko; Yiddish shtetl), a small town in Western Krai annexed during the Partitions of Poland; typically with Jewish majority” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Types_ of_inhabited_ localities_in_Russia, accessed 3-29-2011.) Revue des études juives, 172 (1-2), janvier-juin 2013, pp. 201-210. doi: 10.2143/REJ.172.1.2979747 996151_REJ_2013/1-2_10_Coben.indd6151_REJ_2013/1-2_10_Coben.indd 201201 221/05/131/05/13 110:270:27 202 WAS THE WORD MESTECHKO BORROWED FROM THE POLISH? I. The etymology of the words mestechko and miasteczko In the linguistics literature, the general outline of the derivations of the modern Russian words for “place” (mesto), and “small town” (mestechko), is clear. Both modern words descend from the Common Slavic (c. 700-900 CE4), word mesto (“place”). These derivations do include one feature requiring explanation, which is that both modern words have dual meanings. Modern mesto usually means place, but may also mean town. Similarly, modern mestechko usually means small town, but may also mean small place. One of the steps in the descent from Common Slavic mesto explains how the single meaning of “place” changed to a dual meaning of “place” and “town.” The Common Slavic mesto descends to the Old Russian (900-1200/1400 CE) written word mesto (place),5 which then has its meaning enlarged by a loan translation6 from the Middle High German (1050-1350 CE), word stat, a word meaning both “place” and “town.”7 From Old Russian mesto, now enlarged to mean both place and town, the lineage descends both to modern mesto, (which, inheriting that enlargement, means both “place” and “town, although usually “place”8); and to modern mestechko (which inherits the same double meaning — both “small town” and “small place,” although usually “small town”).9 4. These dates apply when Common Slavic is equated to Late Proto-Slavic, and is thus ca. 8th-9th centuries CE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Slavic_language; http://en.wiktionary. org/wiki/Common_Slavic; accessed 3-29-2011). 5. Old Russian mesto may have arisen in the 14th or 15th century, because a 15th century message to Vasily II, Grand Prince of Moscow, already uses mestechko to mean an urban site (“Sbornik Kirillo-Belozerskogo monastyria”, in S. G. BARKHUDAROV et al., Slovar’ Russkogo Iazyka XI-XVII vv, Moscow, vol. 9, 1975, p. 109-110). T. L. B. WADE, Russian Etymological Dictionary, London, 1996, assigns the Old Russian word mesto to the 11th century. 6. A loan translation, or calque, is the adoption by a receiving language of a word in a donating language, an adoption carried out, for example, by translating the donor word directly into the receiving language; e. g., the Russian pravopisanie (“orthography”) is a calque of the Greek donor word orthografia. In Greek, orthos means “correct” and grapho means “I write.” In Russian, pravo means “correct” and pisanie means “I write.” 7. M. VASMER, O. N. TRUBACHEVA, B. A. LARINA, Etimologicheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka, Moscow, 1964, 4 vol. See also http://vasmer.narod.ru/ (accessed 3-29-2011). 8. The double meaning (town, place) of the 14th century Middle High German word stat persists into modern times for both the Russian mesto and mestechko. Thus, despite the fact that the dominant meaning of modern Russian mesto is “place,” Kurakin (1705) used mesto for miasto, town: “nennt eine Stadt häufig mesto, p. miasto.” (See W. A. CHRISTIANI, Über das Eindringen von Fremdwörtern in die russische Schriftsprache des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Berlin, 1906, p. 17.) The meaning of town for mesto is not found, however, in 20th and 21st century dictionaries. 9. L. SEGAL, New Complete Russian-English Dictionary, London, 1953; V. I. CHERNYCHEV, Slovar’ Sovremennogo Russkogo Literaturnogo Iazyka, Moscow, 1950-1965; D. USHAKOV, 996151_REJ_2013/1-2_10_Coben.indd6151_REJ_2013/1-2_10_Coben.indd 202202 221/05/131/05/13 110:270:27 WAS THE WORD MESTECHKO BORROWED FROM THE POLISH? 203 II. The etymology of the word miasteczko The Polish miasto (“town”) and miasteczko (“small town”), descend from the same Common Slavic mesto as did the just-described Russian mesto and mestechko. The steps in the lineage of miasteczko, however, are not known, a gap in knowledge symbolized by the fact that etymologists differ in identifiying the word of which it is the diminutive.10 Thus although the general outline of etymology for the Polish and the Russian words is roughly similar, not enough details have been filled in to speak of a strictly parallel development. The lineage of miasteczko differs from the Russian lineage for mestechko, in that mestechko has the dual meaning, but modern miasteczkco has always meant only small town.11 III. The written usage of mestechko from the 15th century The earliest known written use of mestechko, in the sense of a small urban settlement,12 is found in a monastery’s collection of documents, in the form of a 15th century message to Vasily II, Grand Prince of Moscow Tolkovly Slovar Russkogo Yazyka, Moscow, 1938; V. K. MULLER, Bol’shoi russko-angliiskii slovar’, Moscow, 2008. Similarly, both Gotoskov (1703) and Dolgokurov (1702) use “mes- techko“ for “miasteczko.” (See CHRISTIANI, Über das Eindringen…, p. 17, note 8 above.) It is not known whether mestechko took on the dual meaning in the same century as did mesto. However, mestechko had done so by the time of its first written usage in 1425-1462. Thus, although any Polish influence on mestechko is unlikely, any such influence should have occurred at or before this written usage. 10. A. BANKOWSKI, Etymologiczny Slownik Jezyka Polskiego, vol. 2, L-P, Warsaw, 1, 2000, p. 172; K. D¥UGOSZ-KURCZABOWA, Nowy S¥ownik etymologiczny jπzyka polskiego, War- saw, 2003, p. 345-346; W. BORYS, S¥ownik etymologiczny jπzyka polskiego, Krakow, 2005, p. 321-322. 11. W. KIERST and O. CALLIER, Burt’s Polish-English dictionary, in two parts, Polish- English [and] English-Polish, New York, n. p., n. d.; E. RYKACZEWSKI, A complete dictionary English and Polish and Polish and English, comp. from the dictionaries of Johnson, Webster, Walker, Fleming and Tibbins, etc. from the Polish lexicon of Linde and the Polish German dictionary of Mrongovius…, Berlin, n. p., 1849-1851; J. STANISLAWSKI. The great Polish- English dictionary, Warsaw, 1970. 12. The modern Russian word mestechko has been used in four different categories of meaning (Slovar’ Russkogo Iazyka XI-XVII vv, Moscow, 1975, vol. 9, p. 109-110). Three of these categories are from the 16th to 18th century, and concern meanings other than urban settlements, as follows: a) a small share of land; a corner or nook (citations to 1555; 1635); b) a portion, a specific space on the surface of a tangible object (1589; 1696); c) a small portion of land, a specific, limited place (1653; 18th century). An encyclopedic dictionary of 1890-1906 mentions, without citation, that mestechkos