nasel'nik i svyazochka -- again

[Steve Marder]

William Ryan wrote:

> And while we are word-hunting in the spiritual realm, can you or
> anyone suggest the source of the words 'chernoknizhie, chernoknizhnik'.
> The earliest occurence I can find is in the report of the trial of
> Maksim Grek. It occurs mostly in religious and legal texts thereafter.
> It looks like a calque but there appears to be no model in Greek, Latin
> or German. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Will,

I agree that it looks like we're dealing with a calque here, although I
can't suggest any source language.

At the risk of telling you something you already know, in its definition
of "chernoknizhie," Ozhegov's dictionary (4th ed., 1997) makes reference
to "so-called black books." And in S.A. Kuznetsov's excellent "Bol'shoy
tolkovyy slovar' russkogo yazyka," although the color of the books is
not specified, they
nevertheless contain "kabalisticheskie znaki, formuly zaklinaniy,
zagovorov, magicheskie retsepty i t.p." I wonder if there might possibly
be some support for the origin of the term "chernoknizhie" not from
without (loan translation), but from within ("internal" word formation).


Steve

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