merzopakost'
J.W.
vanya1v at YAHOO.COM
Thu May 13 02:45:08 UTC 2004
Ottawa (Canada), Wednesday 12/5/04 10h30 EDT
It appears that the word is simply a combination of two virtually
synonymous terms (merzost' and pakost'), thereby intensifying the
effect.
While the four-volume Academy Dictionary does not list merzopakost' as a
noun, it does give merzopakostnyj as an adjective, and cites Chekhov's
use of it in "Bez mesta": "Tut proizoshlo nechto merzopakostnoe." It is
quite possible that Kharms (as a twentieth-century writer several
decades after Chekhov) formulated the noun on the basis of its
adjectival use in Chekhov, although this is simply a conjecture on my
part.
J. Woodsworth (Slavic Research Group, University of Ottawa)
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