лезть

Forms

лезть (leztʹ) impf (perfective зале́зть or влезть or поле́зть)^[1] Before 1918 it was spelt лѣзть (also лѣсть, лѣзти), as in „Лѣсть по лѣсницѣ на стѣны градския” “to climb a ladder onto the city walls” (18th century).^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old East Slavic лѣзти (lězti, “to go; to climb”), from Proto-Slavic *lězti (“to crawl, climb”).^[1][3] The other Slavic languages have Old Church Slavonic възлѣсти (vŭzlěsti, “to go up”), Ukrainian лізти (lizty), Bulgarian ляза (ljaza), Czech lézt and Polish leźć.^[4][5]

лазить has the same root with a long o-grade;^[4][5] Vasmer holds that it cannot be separated from this verb, the vowels standing in the ratio ē : ō.^[4][5] Vasmer relates Latvian lēžât (“to slide down”), lẽzêt (“to walk slowly, creep up”), lêzens (“flat, level”) and Old Prussian līse (“crawls”), and probably Old Norse lágr (“low”), Middle High German læge (“flat”) and Ancient Greek λαχύς (lakhús, “low”).^[4] He rejects a comparison with Lithuanian láigyti (“to run about”).^[4] Shaposhnikov and ESRJa trace the root to Proto-Indo-European *lēǵʰ- (“to crawl along the ground; low”).^[6][5] Shansky and Bobrova also connect лечь, so that the verb would first have meant “to move lying down”.^[7]

Chernykh calls the etymology not beyond dispute; he favours Štrekelj's link with лоза, if that word first meant a creeping plant, and holds that “to crawl” is older than “to climb” or the Old Russian “to go”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Chernykh dates лѣзти in Old Russian from the 11th century, first in the sense “to go”, later “to crawl”.^[8] Sreznevsky glosses it “to go, to climb”;^[9][5] ESRJa sums up the Old Russian senses as “to go; to go out or in; to climb up or down, usually holding on with the hands”.^[9][5] The Laurentian copy of the Primary Chronicle uses it twice.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the 18th century the verb meant climbing, as in Kantemir's „лѣзя весь в поту на гору высоку” “climbing a high mountain all in sweat”, and also rising upwards, of plants, shadows or froth;^[2] как из кадки лезть was said of a loud voice.^[2] В гору лезть came to mean “to rise in the world”.^[11]

The colloquial senses “to push in uninvited”, “to meddle”, “to fit” (of clothes) and “to fall out” (of hair) are recorded in the modern dictionaries.^[12][1] Dialects use it for simply “to enter” (Arkhangelsk 1822, Kostroma, Vologda, Perm) and for “to sink, get stuck”, of a foot in mud (Kargopol).^[13]

Timeline

• 11th century – лѣзти “to go” in Old Russian.^[8]
• 1377 – лѣзти in the Laurentian copy of the Primary Chronicle.^[10]
• 18th century – лѣзя “climbing” in Kantemir's sixth satire.^[2]
• 1822 – the regional sense “to enter”, from Arkhangelsk.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (imperfective; perfective залезть, влезть, полезть) to climb up or down, holding on with the hands and feet.^[14][15][1]
2. To crawl or squeeze into, under or out of something, as under a table or into a tent.^[16]
3. (colloquial) To get into a place by force or by stealth.^[15][17]
4. (colloquial) To put one's hand into something closed, such as a pocket or a drawer.^[12][15]
5. (colloquial) To push in where one is not wanted; to meddle, as in лезть не в своё дело.^[12][1]
6. (colloquial) To go on, or ask for something, regardless of obstacles or objections.^[17][1]
7. (colloquial, of clothes or shoes) To fit.^[15][1]
8. (of hair or fur) To fall out.^[1][8]
9. (figurative, colloquial) To try to climb to a higher position in life.^[17][1]

Word family

• влезть
• вылезти
• залезть
• слезть
• пролезть
• перелезть
• подлезть
• облезть
• полезть
• разлезться

Related words

• лазить
• лаз
• Old East Slavic лѣзти (lězti)

Usage notes

Лезть is used of a single movement in one direction, лазить of repeated or undirected climbing.^[18] The imperative is лезь, colloquially полезай.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Sorokin, Yu. S. et al. (eds.) (1984–), Slovar' russkogo jazyka XVIII veka [Словарь русского языка XVIII века], vols. 1–24, Leningrad / Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka, p. s.v. лезть
3. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 275
4. ^ a b c d e Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 2, 476–477
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. лезть
6. ^ Shaposhnikov, A. K. (2010), Ètimologičeskij slovar' sovremennogo russkogo jazyka [Этимологический словарь современного русского языка], 2 vols., Moskva: Flinta / Nauka, p. 1, 463
7. ^ Shansky, N. M.; Bobrova, T. A. (2004), Škol'nyj ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka [Школьный этимологический словарь русского языка], 7th ed., Moskva: Drofa, p. s.v. лезть
8. ^ a b c d 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. лезть
9. ^ a b Sreznevsky, I. I. (1893–1912), Materialy dlja slovarja drevne-russkago jazyka po pis'mennym pamjatnikam [Материалы для словаря древнерусского языка по письменным памятникам], 3 vols., Sankt-Peterburg: Imperatorskaja Akademija nauk, p. 2, s.v. лѣзти
10. ^ a b Eckhoff, Hanne M.; Berdicevskis, Aleksandrs et al., TOROT: The Tromsø Old Russian and OCS Treebank, release 20200116, torottreebank.github.io
11. ^ Michelson, M. I. (1902–1903), Russkaja mysl' i reč'. Svoe i čužoe. Opyt russkoj frazeologii [Русская мысль и речь. Свое и чужое. Опыт русской фразеологии], 2 vols., Sankt-Peterburg, p. s.v. В гору идти, лезть
12. ^ a b c Ushakov, D. N. (ed.) (1935–1940), Tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Толковый словарь русского языка], 4 vols., Moskva: Sovetskaja ènciklopedija / OGIZ, p. s.v. лезть
13. ^ a b 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, 339
14. ^ Evgen'eva, A. P. (ed.) (1981–1984), Slovar' russkogo jazyka v četyrex tomax [Словарь русского языка в 4 тт.] (MAS), 2nd ed., Moskva: Russkij jazyk, p. s.v. лезть
15. ^ a b c d e Ozhegov, S. I.; Shvedova, N. Yu. (1997), Tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Толковый словарь русского языка], 4th ed., Moskva: Azbukovnik, p. s.v. лезть
16. ^ Kuznetsov, S. A. (ed.) (1998), Bol'šoj tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Большой толковый словарь русского языка], Sankt-Peterburg: Norint, p. s.v. лезть
17. ^ a b c Efremova, T. F. (2000), Novyj slovar' russkogo jazyka. Tolkovo-slovoobrazovatel'nyj [Новый словарь русского языка. Толково-словообразовательный], 2 vols., Moskva: Russkij jazyk, p. s.v. лезть
18. ^ Викисловарь (Russian Wiktionary), https://ru.wiktionary.org