etymology

[Jules Levin]

On 31.03.2014 12:36, John Dingley wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Can someone enlighten me as to the etymology of the
> Russian family name Путин? Presumably one does not
>    
I am doing this without checking, so I probably will embarrass myself, 
but I have assumed that Rasputin
is connected to the root 'put-' meaning 'hobbles'--what is put on horses 
to keep them from running away.
I have the vague impression that *puta wd be a pluralia tantum of a 
neuter, and Rasputin wd be literally 'unhobbled, freed'
Perhaps the same root is in Putin.
With much hesitation,
Jules Levin





> want to derive it from путь since путь is an
> original masculine -i stem noun (the only one to
> survive into Modern Russian) and one would expect
> *Путев, which is the case with other family names
> derived from masculine -i stems, e.g
> Медведев<  медведь
> Зверев<  зверь
> Голубев<  голубь
>
> As a rule of thumb, the suffix -ин is used to form
> family names from nouns ending in -а/-я, e.g
> Воронин<  ворона, Ленин<  Лена and feminine
> -i stems, e.g. Сталин<  сталь.  The suffix
> -ов/-ев being used elsewhere. This distribution
> betrays their possessive adjective origin.
>
> Unbegaun (p.161) explains Распутин as a nickname,
> where different formation rules apply.
>
> John Dingley
>
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