nasel'nik i svyazochka -- again

[Steve Marder]

William Ryan wrote:
>
> Dear Steve,
> I am afraid Ozhegov and Kuznetsov were guessing, just as Dal' did on
> occasion. The magic books of kolduns were routinely called simply
> tetradki in court cases in the eighteenth century, and as far as I
> recall they are not attested as objects before the 17th century. I know
> of no example of the phrase 'black books' in Old Russian (but would be
> happy to be corrected). The erratic and fanciful D'iachenko (Polnyi
> tserkovonslavianskii slovar', 1900) suggests that the first printed
> arithmetic books were so called by simple folk (in the 18th century).
> The 'tetradki' certainly did not contain 'cabbalistic signs'. I would
> certainly be happy to accept a local origin if the words were in popular
> use, but they are in fact mostly (?always) found in ecclesiastical or
> legal contexts. And a local origin would still require some motivation
> for 'black'. Thanks for the interest - keep thinking!


Will,

Many thanks for your insightful reply.

Steve

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