Fortochka

[R. M. Cleminson]

It is important to realise that форточка has two separate meanings.  The one is the little hatch in a door that can be opened to see who is on the other side, and it is this one which is a synonym of vasistas.  "Vasistas" was evidently borrowed from French, where it has the same meaning, though nowadays the French word seems to be applied more often to a little lens or spyhole set into a door for the same purpose.

The other meaning of форточка is the one this thread started with, the section of a window that can be opened for ventilation.  (This may be the upper section, may be the lower section, as at http://www.shunk.ru/photo/5135 , and in my experience is usually somewhere in the middle.) 

The two differ in function, but have the same form: a rectangular section hinged at the side. In other words it is "a little door", which is the meaning of fortka in 17th-century Polish (itself derived from German Pforte < Lat. porta), which is agreed to be the origin of the word.  (Фортка thus emerges as the primary form of the word in Russian, though less frequently heard today.)

In this second sense there is NO equivalent English word, for the simple reason that the thing does not exist where English is spoken.  The difference in climate means that English builders have not had to invent anything to provide ventilation in a room with sealed double windows.  (Many of us have probably participated in the autumn job of installing the second window frame and sealing up all the cracks, leaving only the форточка capable of admitting air.)  This, naturally, is not something that Russian builders would have had to cope with, either, until glass windows became widespread; this matches the chronology of the etymology, and explains why such a typically Russian object is denoted by a word of non-Russian origin.

I cannot help wondering if a similar solution has ever been adopted in other places, and if so, what it was called.  Can our Canadian colleagues suggest anything?
 


----- Pôvodná správa -----
Od: "Hugh Olmsted" <hugh_olmsted at COMCAST.NET>
Komu: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Odoslané: štvrtok, 3. február 2011 5:37:37
Predmet: Re: [SEELANGS] Fortochka

Jules, et al.
Yes indeed.  "Vasistas" (n., msc.) is the usual French word for 'fortochka', originating in the German "Was ist das?" -- 'chto eto takoe?', long a favorite etymology of mine. 
That it should appear in the works of Pushkin, where the easy importation of le mot juste francais is not unknown, should come as scant surprise.
Hugh Olmsted




On Feb 2, 2011, at 6:30 PM, Jules Levin wrote:

> On 2/2/2011 5:43 AM, John Dunn wrote:
>> Aleksandrov's 1885 dictionary gives 'vasistas', which, although implausible and probably inaccurate,  should, at least, please the Pushkinisty among us.
>> 
>> John Dunn.
>> 
> Isn't the whole question Wass ist dass?
> 
> Jules Levin
> 
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