palach

[Jules Levin]

On 12/20/2010 2:16 PM, Paul B. Gallagher wrote:
> Jules Levin wrote:
>
>> Robert Chandler wrote:
>>
>>> Dear all,
>>>
>>> Does anyone have any ideas as to how to translate 'palach', when
>>> his role is not to execute someone but to whip them?
>>>
>> Two comments: re etymology From memory I think this was cited as a
>> spelled akanye word, i.e., it "should" be "polach", leaving us with
>> a root *pol- + the common Russian agent suffix -ach.
>
Cf. Russ polot' 'to weed [and remove yard debris'].    I have vague 
impression cognate with Eng. poll, hair-cutting, but can't remember how 
you get a /p/ in both Slavic and Germanic.  But it is undeniable that 
palach' was polach', attested in Russian sources and if I am not 
mistaken still so pronounced in okayushchie dialects [if they still exist?].
The association between haircutting and beheading?  Well, euphemistic 
references to the latter are as old as
Genesis and Joseph's dream interpreting:  the two servants of pharoh 
both had their heads raised up--one returned to his high position, and 
the other was beheaded.
Now back to Fletcher's citing of "polachies" (previous message).  If you 
are interested in Fletcher's many Russian words, beware of all editions 
after the 16th Century Hakluyt publication.  I was privileged to use the 
1589 edition at Harvard in 1962, but all subsequent versions have 
corrupted the text.  The end of the 19th Century produced a Russian 
translation of "Russ Commonwealth", where the authors just translated 
into contemporary Russian Fletcher's English explanation for the Russian 
words he was using.  20th Century English editions just used the Russian 
from that edition as a "correction" of Fletcher's Russian.  That's why 
the passage where Fletcher refers to "polachies" appears as "palachi" in 
the "Rude and Barbarous Kingdom" University of Wisconsin 1968 edition of 
Fletcher.  Unfortunately I just reread the passage (from the latter; 
don't have a copy of the 1589 edition) and must correct what I wrote 
earlier.    Fletcher is repeating an anecdote about Ivan Groznyj 
ordering an execution that he probably got from Jerome Horsey, another 
Englishman and Hakluyt contributor who had logged more time in Russia 
and had a full supply of court gossip to pass on:

“Then asked he his palachi or executioners who could cut up a goose and 
commanded one of them first to cut off his legs above the middle of the 
shin, then his arms above his elbows (asking him still if goose flesh 
were good meat), in the end to chop off his head that he might have the 
right fashion of a goose ready dressed.”
Thus we can say that the first English translation of 'polach' was 
'executioner', published in 1589.
Jules Levin
Los Angeles






> Why not *pal- as in палка?
>
> Though Vasmer does think this less likely:
>
> GENERAL: род. п. -а́, стар. полачь, Аввакум 163, Сказание о Соломоне, 
> Пам. стар. лит. 3, 60, XVII в. Обычно возводят к тур. раlа "меч, 
> кинжал" (Радлов 4, 1162); *раlаčу "меченосец" не засвидетельствовано; 
> ср. Мi. ЕW 230; ТЕl. 2, 138. Возм., выравнено по словам на -ачь (ср. 
> труба́ч и под.; см. Преобр. II, 7). Менее вероятно сближение с па́лка, 
> па́лица (Ильинский, ИОРЯС 23, 1, 152).
>
> TRUBACHEV: [Унбегаун (BSL, 52, 1957, стр. 173) объясняет из пали́ть. -- 
> Т.]
>
> <http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?baseid=+2&root=/usr/local/share/starling/morpho&morpho=1&text_any=палач&method_any=substring&sort=unsorted&ic_any=on&first=1> 
>
>


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