Names

[A. Vine]

RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>
> In a message dated 12/17/1999 8:15:13 PM, avine at ENG.SUN.COM writes:
>
> <<  In the communist era, you would hear "Citizen"
> + family-name.
>
> Andrea Bernardovna >>
>
> And before that wasn't there something like "gaspodeen" = "Mr/Ms"?

Yes, indeedy, there was "Gospodin Gorbachev" and "Gospozha Gorbacheva", though
I'm not sure of the context of usage, that is, whether the usage is archaic, or
in a different situation, such as a society function (which would indicate that
it's pre-revolutionary).

I think "gospodin" and "gospozha" stem from the word for God, alond the lines of
"host" (Old Church Slavonic "gospod").

But I am no expert in Russian etymology -
Andrea
--
Andrea Vine, avine at eng.sun.com
Sun-Netscape Alliance i18n architect
Necessity is the mother of strange bedfellows.
-- Dr. Dave Farber (father of SNOBOL and one of the creators of Token Ring)