луб

Forms

луб (lub) m inan (genitive лу́ба, nominative plural лу́бья^*, genitive plural лу́бьев^*, relational adjective лубяно́й) (* The plural noun forms are non-standard.)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old East Slavic лубъ (lubŭ), from Proto-Slavic *lubъ (“bast”).^[1][2] Related forms are Ukrainian луб (lub), Belarusian луб (lub), Bulgarian луб (lub), Serbo-Croatian луб (lub), Slovene lȗb, Czech lub, Polish łub and Upper Sorbian łub.^[3][2]

The Baltic cognates are Lithuanian lubà (“board”), plural lùbos (“ceiling”), lúobas (“fir or lime bark”), Latvian luba (“bast”) and Old Prussian lubo (“board”).^[3][2] Further off are Latin liber (“bast; book”), from older ⟨*lubro-⟩, Albanian labë (“bark, cork”), Old Norse laupr (“basket”), Old English lēap (“basket”) and Old High German louft (“bark, bast”) and louba (“shelter”), the source of German Laube (“arbour”).^[3][4][2] The root is Proto-Indo-European *leubʰ- (“to strip off bark, peel”);^[4][2] its variant with a voiceless stop, *leup-, is in лупить.^[2][4] Wiktionary relates Proto-Germanic *laubą (“leaf”), the source of English leaf, to the same root.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Chernykh finds the word in Old Russian from the 15th century.^[4] A 15th-century birchbark letter from Staraya Russa uses it as a measure of salt: „по семи лубовъ за рубль” “seven bast boxes for a rouble”;^[5] a document of 1483 has bast as writing material: „на лубъ выписали” “they wrote it down on bast”.^[5] Sreznevsky glosses it as the inner side of the bark of the lime and other trees, writing material, a document and a measure.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word moved from the material to things made of it: a strip of bast (1511), a bast box used as a container and measure for salt (1554), the body of a sledge (1574, 1592), a bast box for apples (1668).^[5] The diminutive лубок came to mean a cheap popular print, first cut on a lime board and later on brass.^[4] Russian and the Slavic languages also built палуба “deck” on the word.^[3]

In the 18th century writers on natural history used it for the inner bark of trees, and Moscow had shacks roofed with лубья;^[7] луб лубом described stiff, uncreasing cloth in popular speech.^[7] Modern botany uses it for the fibrous tissue of plants (the phloem) and for the fibre of flax and hemp.^[8]

Timeline

• 15th century – лубовъ “bast boxes” of salt, in a birchbark letter from Staraya Russa.^[5]
• 1483 – на лубъ “on bast”, as writing material.^[5]
• about 1500 – Лубъ, the name of a strelets.^[9]
• 1511 – лубовъ “strips of bast”.^[5]
• 1574 – луб в сани “a bast body for a sledge”.^[5]
• 1674 – лубу “bast”, bought for boots.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) phloem: the fibrous tissue of plants through which organic matter moves.^[8]
2. A sheet or piece of the bark of the lime, elm or other broad-leaved trees with its fibrous inner layer; bast.^[8][1]
3. (technical) The fibre of plants such as flax and hemp, used for spinning.^[8]

Word family

• лубок
• лубочный
• лубяной
• лубовый
• лубянка
• лубье

Related words

• палуба
• лупить
• Old East Slavic лубъ (lubŭ)

Usage notes

The plural лубья is formed like братья;^[1][8] Wiktionary marks the plural forms as non-standard.^[1][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. луб
3. ^ 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, 526–527
4. ^ a b c d e 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. луб
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 290
6. ^ 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. лубъ
7. ^ a b 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. луб
8. ^ 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. луб
9. ^ Tupikov, N. M. (1903), Slovar' drevne-russkix ličnyx sobstvennyx imen [Словарь древне-русских личных собственных имен], Sankt-Peterburg, p. 232