etymology of одеяло

[John Dunn]

Part of the answer the final question in Stephanie's P.S. can be found in the book of Genesis, more precisely, in the story of the Garden of Eden: God, the form of the Guardians of the Purity of the Великий и Могучий, told Adam and Eve (the learners of Russian) that they could taste of the fruit of any lexicographical tree in that Garden of Eden that is the Russian language, except that of the tree of the Knowledge of Naughty Words.  So Adam and Eve did what Adams and Eves throughout the ages have done ...

I would not, however, want to take the analogy too far: it's not really fair to cast Adler and Shlyakhov in the role of the serpent (though Flegon might have relished the comparison), and it's arguable that in this version that it was the GPVM who were cast into the outer darkness.  In fact, these dictionaries served (or claimed to serve) a practical purpose: in Soviet times they helped us read writers such as Solzhenitsyn and Zinov'ev and in the early post-Soviet period they made it possible to cope with the sudden appearance in mainstream publications of words and phrases that most Russians knew but which were not recorded in standard dictionaries.   But I think it is legitimate to ask the question whether the time has not now come for Russian to follow the practice of other European languages and incorporate obscene and other previously unacceptable vocabulary into general dictionaries.

John Dunn.

P.S.  I have got a copy of the Barron book (partly because I happen to know one of the authors); in terms of I have said above, it is, I suppose a book of this time.  Part of the perceived bias may come from the different connotations of the English word slang and the Russian word сленг (though cf. Jonathon Green, The Cassell Dictionary of Slang and other similar publications). 
________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Stephanie Briggs [sdsures at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: 21 January 2011 13:05
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: [SEELANGS] etymology of одеяло

Hi,

In a recent list email someone was talking about their blanket (одеяло). I
knit for a living, so I often use this vocabulary of knitting too. Does
anyone know how this word came to be associated with "blanket"? In terms of
foreign English words appropriated into Russian (i.e. журналист/ка) you can
see the resemblance between the mother tongue and Russian in the way the
words sound.Not in this case, though.

I'm wondering what language, if any, одеяло came from; if it is purely
Russian, what does the root mean? (Russian roots often come from Greek
rather than Latin, I was told).

Спасибо!

Stephanie

PS: Does anyone else own the *Barron's book of Russian Slang*? I find it an
entertaining read, if a little biased in terms of vocabulary that
foreigners, esp Americans, are assumed to want to learn. Everyone always
wanted to know, when I spoke Russian, if I knew any insulting words or curse
words. Why this fascination with the obscene?

*****************************
~Stephanie D. (Sures) Briggs
http://sdsures.blogspot.com/

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