Etymologically
Log in

человек

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 18:29. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • [t͡ɕɪɫɐˈvʲek], [t͡ɕek][1]
  • Colloquial, informal: [t͡ɕɪɫɐˈɛk], [t͡ɕɪˈɫɛk], [t͡ɕɪˈɛk][1]

Forms

челове́к (čelovék) m anim (genitive челове́ка, nominative plural лю́ди or челове́ки^*, genitive plural люде́й or челове́к^* or челове́ков^*, female equivalent челове́чица (dated, colloquial, humorous), relational adjective челове́ческий or челове́чий or людско́й, diminutive челове́чек, augmentative челове́чище, hypocorism че́лик, pejorative челове́чишко, clipping чел) (* Nominative plural - rare, poetic, other cases of челове́к in plural are used with numbers.)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old East Slavic человѣкъ (čelověkŭ), from Proto-Slavic *čelověkъ (“man, human being”) or its shortened form *čьlověkъ.[2][1][3] The word is common Slavic: Old Church Slavonic чловѣкъ (člověkŭ), Ukrainian чоловік (čolovik, “husband”), Bulgarian човек (čovek), Czech člověk and Polish człowiek; Latvian cilvēks was taken from Slavic.[2]

It is a compound of two stems.[4][5] The view most accepted, put forward by Zimmer in the 1870s, joins the first part with челядь and Sanskrit कुल (kúla, “herd, family, clan”), Ancient Greek τέλος (télos, “crowd”) and Lithuanian kiltis (“clan”), and the second with vaikas (“boy, child”), Latvian vaiks and Old Prussian waix (“servant”);[2][4] the first meaning would then be “child, offspring of the clan”.[4] Vinogradov likewise takes the first meaning to be “man as a member of the clan”.[6] Others take ⟨*čьlo-⟩ as an ablaut form of the root of целый and ⟨-věkъ⟩ as “strength” (as in век and увечье), so that the word first meant “full of strength”, but Vasmer finds this less likely and points out that the Old Russian form with ⟨че-⟩ speaks against it.[2] Shaposhnikov derives it from the stems of чело and ⟨*věkъ⟩ “life, vital force”.[5] Chernykh notes that the question cannot be thought finally settled, and Trubachev lists further, unlikely proposals.[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Ostromir Gospel of 1056–1057 has the Church Slavonic spelling: „чловѣкъ етеръ отъ фарисеи, имя ему Никодимъ” “a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus” (John 3:1).[7] Chernykh dates человѣкъ in Old Russian from the 11th century, both as “a human being, a member of the community” and as “a man in someone's service”.[4][8]

Semantic evolution

Old Russian already had the senses “human being”, “member of society”, “servant (someone's man)” and “a head in a count”, beside the variants чоловѣкъ and чьловѣкъ.[5][8] The Lay of Igor's Campaign speaks of the lives of men cut short by the princes' feuds: „вѣци человѣкомь скратишась”.[7] In the era of serfdom человек was a household servant or footman, and later a waiter.[5][9] The dictionaries record the word from 1704.[5]

The adjective человечный is in dictionaries only from the middle of the 19th century, first as “humane” in Dal (1866), though Karamzin used the comparative человечнее in 1791–1792.[4]

Timeline

  • 1056–1057 – чловѣкъ “a man” in the Ostromir Gospel.[7]
  • end of the 12th century – человѣкомь “to men” in the Lay of Igor's Campaign.[7]
  • 1704 – first recorded in a dictionary.[5]
  • 1791–1792 – человечнее “more humane” in Karamzin's Letters of a Russian Traveller.[4]
  • 1866 – человечный “humane” in Dal's dictionary.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A human being, person: the living being with thought and speech that makes and uses tools in social labour.[9][1]
  2. An individual, a person of a certain kind: молодой человек “a young man”.[9][4]
  3. (historical) Under serfdom, a household servant or footman; later a waiter.[9][5]
  4. (collective, poetic) mankind, man.[1]

Word family

  • человеческий
  • человечий
  • человечный
  • человечество
  • человечек
  • бесчеловечный
  • очеловечить
  • сверхчеловек
  • по-человечески
  • чел
  • люди
  • челядь
  • век
  • Old East Slavic человѣкъ (čelověkŭ)
  • Old Church Slavonic чловѣкъ (člověkŭ)

Usage notes

The plural of человек is the suppletive люди; the plural человеки is dated or jocular, and the other plural cases (genitive человек) are used only with numerals.[9][10][11] In Old Church Slavonic the plural was already Old Church Slavonic людиѥ (ljudije), and wrote человѣци only where the Greek original had the plural Ancient Greek ἄνθρωποι (ánthrōpoi).[12] The old vocative человече survives as a dated or jocular form of address.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. 4, 328–329
  3. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 80
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Chernykh, P. Ya. (1993), Istoriko-ètimologičeskij slovar' sovremennogo russkogo jazyka [Историко-этимологический словарь современного русского языка], 2 vols., Moskva: Russkij jazyk, p. 2, s.v. человек
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Shaposhnikov, A. K. (2010), Ètimologičeskij slovar' sovremennogo russkogo jazyka [Этимологический словарь современного русского языка], 2 vols., Moskva: Flinta / Nauka, p. 2, 517
  6. ^ Vinogradov, V. V. (1999), Istorija slov [История слов], Moskva: Institut russkogo jazyka RAN (online edition, etymolog.ruslang.ru)
  7. ^ a b c d Vinogradova, V. L. (1965–1984), Slovar'-spravočnik «Slova o polku Igoreve» [Словарь-справочник «Слова о полку Игореве»], 6 vols., Moskva / Leningrad: Nauka
  8. ^ 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. 3, s.v. человѣкъ
  9. ^ 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. человек
  10. ^ Ushakov, D. N. (ed.) (1935–1940), Tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Толковый словарь русского языка], 4 vols., Moskva: Sovetskaja ènciklopedija / OGIZ, p. s.v. человек
  11. ^ 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. человек
  12. ^ Havlová, Eva; Erhart, Adolf; Janyšková, Ilona (eds.) (1989–2022), Etymologický slovník jazyka staroslověnského, 21 fascicles, Praha: Academia / Brno: Tribun EU