Etymologically
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лежать

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Pronunciation

  • [lʲɪˈʐatʲ][1]

Forms

лежа́ть (ležátʹ) impf (perfective лечь or полежа́ть, verbal noun (nomen actionis) лежа́ние or (nomen actionis instantiae) лёжка or (nomen instrumenti et obiecti) лежа́к or (nomen instrumenti et obiecti) лежа́нка or (nomen loci) ле́жбище, verbal adjective лежа́чий or лежа́лый, verbal adverb лежмя́)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old East Slavic лежати (ležati), from Proto-Slavic *ležati (“to lie”).[1][2][3] The verb is common Slavic: Old Church Slavonic лежати (ležati), Ukrainian лежати (ležaty), Bulgarian лежа (leža, “I lie”), Serbo-Croatian лежати (ležati), Slovene léžati, Czech ležeti and Polish leżeć.[2][4]

The Proto-Slavic verb comes from older *legěti, a stative verb in ⟨-ěti⟩ beside the inchoative *legti (“to lie down”), the source of лечь;[4][5] the /g/ became /ž/ before the front vowel, and /ě/ became /a/ after it.[4] The root is Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”).[1][5][4] Its cognates include Old High German liggen (“to lie”), Old Saxon liggian, Old Norse liggja (“to lie, rest”), Ancient Greek λέχος (lékhos, “bed”), λεχώ (lekhṓ, “woman in childbed”), Latin lectus (“bed, couch”) and Old Irish lige (“bed, grave”).[2][4] ложе and ложить belong to the same family.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is in the Ostromir Gospel of 1056–1057, in Luke 2:12: „обрящете младеньць повитъ лежящь въ яслехъ” “ye shall find the babe wrapped, lying in a manger”, where it renders the Greek for lying.[7] SDRJa records it 602 times, first in the sense of a person or animal lying on the ground.[8] Chernykh dates it from the 11th century in Old Russian, with the senses to lie and to be buried.[6]

Semantic evolution

Old Russian already used the verb for being buried: a Novgorod record of 1243 says of a dead posadnik that he lies in a church.[7] The Laurentian Chronicle (1377) has a princess who „лежа в немощи” “lay ill” for seven years, under the year 1206,[8] and a 1698 document uses лежалъ for being ill.[7] Later Old Russian added the senses to spend the night and to stay somewhere.[6] Things lie as well as people: a 15th-century text has a great stone lying on the road.[7]

The dialects add their own senses: in Yakutia лежать is to live in one place doing nothing, and on the Indigirka travellers in the spring thaw “lie” by day and go on at night, when the ground freezes; elsewhere it means to be ill, and around Verkhoturye to belong.[9] Of the derivatives, лежанка “stove bench” was first recorded in a dictionary of 1771 and лежмя in the Academy dictionary of 1792.[6]

Timeline

  • 1056–1057 – лежящь “lying” in the Ostromir Gospel.[7]
  • 1243 – “to lie buried” in a Novgorod record.[7]
  • 1377 – лежа в немощи “lying ill” in the Laurentian Chronicle, under 1206.[8]
  • 1698 – лежалъ “was ill”.[7]
  • 1771 – лежанка in a dictionary.[6]
  • 1792 – лежмя in the Academy dictionary.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lie: to be stretched out on something in a horizontal position.[10][1]
  2. Of a sick person: to be in bed, to be bedridden; also to be in hospital.[10]
  3. Of things: to lie flat on a surface; to be, be kept somewhere, as keys in a pocket.[10]
  4. Of snow, frost, mist: to cover a surface or space.[10]
  5. To be situated somewhere, or to run in some direction: a town lies in a valley, the road lies through a forest.[10][1]
  6. To rest on someone as a duty or responsibility.[10][1]

Word family

  • лежание
  • лежанка
  • лежачий
  • лежак
  • лёжка
  • лежбище
  • лежмя
  • лежебока
  • полежать
  • залежаться
  • належать
  • подлежать
  • принадлежать
  • лечь
  • ложе
  • ложиться
  • логово
  • прилежный
  • Old East Slavic лежати (ležati)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 2, 475
  3. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 271
  4. ^ a b c d e Shansky, N. M.; Zhuravlev, A. F. (eds.) (1963–2007), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka [Этимологический словарь русского языка], vols. 1–10 (A–M), Moskva: Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, p. 9, s.v. лежать
  5. ^ a b Shaposhnikov, A. K. (2010), Ètimologičeskij slovar' sovremennogo russkogo jazyka [Этимологический словарь современного русского языка], 2 vols., Moskva: Flinta / Nauka, p. 1, 463
  6. ^ a b c d e f Chernykh, P. Ya. (1993), Istoriko-ètimologičeskij slovar' sovremennogo russkogo jazyka [Историко-этимологический словарь современного русского языка], 2 vols., Moskva: Russkij jazyk, p. 1, s.v. лежать
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Barkhudarov, S. G. et al. (eds.) (1975–), Slovar' russkogo jazyka XI–XVII vv. [Словарь русского языка XI–XVII вв.], vols. 1–31, Moskva: Nauka / Azbukovnik / Lexrus, p. 8, s.v. лежати
  8. ^ a b c Avanesov, R. I. et al. (eds.) (1988–), Slovar' drevnerusskogo jazyka (XI–XIV vv.) [Словарь древнерусского языка (XI–XIV вв.)], vols. 1–13, Moskva: Russkij jazyk / Azbukovnik, p. 4, 394
  9. ^ Filin, F. P.; Sorokoletov, F. P.; Myznikov, S. A. (eds.) (1965–), Slovar' russkix narodnyx govorov [Словарь русских народных говоров], vols. 1–51, Moskva / Leningrad / Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka, p. 16, 329–330
  10. ^ a b c d e f Ozhegov, S. I.; Shvedova, N. Yu. (1997), Tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Толковый словарь русского языка], 4th ed., Moskva: Azbukovnik, p. s.v. лежать