9 words in Russian that changed gender

Many are seriously worried about the fact that "coffee" in colloquial speech can be used as a word not only masculine, but also neuter. Even though it's so fixedReference and information portal "Gramota.ru" in dictionary. However, this is far from the only example of the variability of the grammatical category of gender in the Russian language. Here are nine more.

1. Metro

"But metro flashed oak railings ", - sang Leonid Utyosov in" Song of the old cab ". And here is what he wroteNational corpus of the Russian language Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky in his diary: “But still metro will be built». And also in the USSR the newspaper "Soviet Metro" was published.

Metro is a truncated version of the noun metropolitan. The last one is masculine, so reduction it was used in the same way for a while. However, linguistic instinct told people that the word ending in "o" should be neuter. This is how the variant appeared, which eventually won. The paradox: we are fighting for "delicious coffee", but the "deep metro" puzzles us or makes us laugh.

2. Shadow

In 1969, the participants in the Russian language Olympiad were askedProblems of linguistic Olympiads. 1965-1975 / Ed.-comp. V. AND. Belikov, E. V. Muravenko, M. E. Alekseev. - M.: MTsNMO, 2006 the problem, which was composed by the famous linguist Andrei Anatolyevich Zaliznyak. Here is her condition: “One of the words - 'door', 'handful', 'shadow', 'horse', 'bed', 'bed' - has changed its genus in the course of history. However, some traces of the fact that it was previously of a different kind, in Russian language survived. Find this word. "

Of course, the answer is obvious: you just need to read the subheading above. But how is this problem solved?

When forming diminutive nouns, the gender is usually preserved: "door - door", "handful - handful", "horse - horse", "bed - bed", "bed - crib". But “shadow is shadow”, not “shadow”. Once this word was masculine, and now it is feminine, but "shadow" keeps the memory of ancient times.

3. Boot

“Velvet ribbons in braids, lace frill around the legs, shoe paris", - we find such a sketchNational corpus of the Russian language in the book of Goncharov "Frigate" Pallas "". “I got to that pearl of creation, which is a modern graceful shoe", - this is already a quoteNational corpus of the Russian language from "Letters to Auntie" by Saltykov-Shchedrin.

The word "boot" was originally usedG. A. Krylov. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language in the form of the feminine gender - "boot", because such a category in the French noun bottineDictionnaire de Français / Larousse. Also in Ushakov's dictionary (1935-1940) it is givenExplanatory dictionary of the Russian language / Under. ed. D. N. Ushakova the feminine variant is rare, but now it is only used as a joke.

4. Film

«Anti-alcohol film"- so it was calledNational corpus of the Russian language note, published in one of the issues of the newspaper "Russian Word" in 1913. "V New york enjoys full success new movie "A terrible night" ", - he wroteNational corpus of the Russian language magazine "Art-screen" in 1923.

In the press of the early twentieth century, there are a lot of examples of the use of this word in the form of the feminine gender, and not the masculine one we are used to. English film in Russia has becomeA. V. Semyonov. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language "Film" and for some period lived in this form. However, over time, it lost the "a" and turned into a masculine noun.

5. Hall

From the "hall", which we meet in literature and cinema, breathes with the spirit of aristocracy and balls. «The hall filledb ladies and men ", - we readNational corpus of the Russian language in Pushkin's unfinished story "The Secular Man". And for a long time in the Russian language forms coexisted female and male kind, but the latter won.

Curious what wasM. Vasmer. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language also the third option is neuter. “I sit alone into the hall and I want to write down what, in the absence of... no, however, even through negligence, I did not add to my journal ", - this is how Bunin formulatedNational corpus of the Russian language your thoughts in the diary. «Into the hall the boyars entered, hastily crossing themselves, "National corpus of the Russian language scene of Alexei Tolstoy in the novel "Peter the First". Even then, this form was beyond the boundaries of the literary norm and was considered vernacular. However, there isNational corpus of the Russian language it still is.

6. Hospital

“Upon his return to Russia, he was assigned to St. Petersburg, and then to the Moscow hospital lecture ", - we findNational corpus of the Russian language in Novikov's "Experience of the Historical Dictionary of Russian Writers." “Peter at the Yauza River ordered, according to his own plan, to build the first military hospital (in the same year it was finished) ", - he wroteNational corpus of the Russian language Pushkin in the work “The History of Peter. Preparatory texts ".

It was in the Peter's era that this word came to us.A. V. Semyonov. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language. Initially, it sounded like "goshpital" or "shpital" and for a long time was used as a feminine noun. However, now the "hospital" is he, not she.

7. Poplar

“Only the hops of the Lithuanian shores, German poplar captive... "- and this is a quote from Pushkin. More precisely, from his translation"A hundred years have passed, like the Teuton ..." / Wikisource poems by Adam Mitskevich.

Nouns that end in "-ol" in Russian are both masculine (for example, "coal" or "alcohol") and feminine ("beans", "tumor"). It is logical that some words lived through the stage of oscillation: the phonetic appearance did not interfere with changing the gender. Such was the fate of the noun "poplar".

8. Briefcase

“Met him in the same fur jacket, with a portfolio", - we readNational corpus of the Russian language at Herzen. We find the same optionNational corpus of the Russian language and Saltykov-Shchedrin: “... addressing the ruler of the chancellery, standing at a distance with a portfolio under the arm. "

And here we can compare with similar nouns: "April", "hotel" - masculine kind; "Blizzard", "model" - female. As in the case of "poplar", the very appearance of the word creates the conditions for hesitation.

9. Piano

"Katya stood, bending over over piano with a volume of Racine in his hands, "wroteNational corpus of the Russian language Andrei Bely in his first novel, The Silver Dove, published in 1909. "In the living room for a royal sat Tatiana ", - we findNational corpus of the Russian language in Chekhov's story "At Friends".

Once upon a time this noun was used in both masculine and feminine gender. And again the preconditions for variations were created by the final part "-l". Even now, many are wrong with the name of a musical instrument - the genus is confused. Just in case, let us remind you: "the piano" is it.