NAMES OF ANGELS AND DEVILS IN POLISH SACRAL LANGUAGE IN THE COMMON SLAVONIC AND EXTRASLAVONIC CONTEXTS (Nazwy aniolow i diablów w religijnym jezyku polskim na tle ogólnoslowianskim i pozaslowianskim)

• Authors: Siatkowska Ewa
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

After the Slavonic peoples were baptized, the former sacral terminology had to be confronted with a new one. Before the Christian era supernatural beings were believed to exist: those were demons, not classified as either good or evil (the only distinguished group being protective spirits). Having performed specific rituals, one could force demons to act in their favor. None of the pre-Christian names of supernatural beings has been transferred to those of Christian good spirits (angels). However, some of the names of demons became names of evil spirits (devils). 'Bies', a ghost initially believed to cause insanity, which is indicated by the semantics of the word's root in the languages Old Church Slavonic and Russian, has gained the meaning 'szatan' in the process of translation of the Bible. 'Czart' was a mighty and cruel demon, as in Greek 'kratys', Goth 'hartus' (other etymologies being less convincing). The meaning 'Christ's mighty enemy' emerged among the Slavic peoples in the Christian era. Other names of angels and devils originate from the Bible. A name which can be found in the Greek translation, 'aggelos' (the equivalent of the Hebrew 'malak' -messenger) was later narrowed to the meaning 'messenger of God' and became common in the whole Christian world. Specific names 'cherubin' and 'serafin' originate from Greek as well. A few archangels are distinguished by proper names:'Gabriel', 'Michal', 'Rafael'. The name 'szatan' corresponds with the Hebrew and Aramaic 'satan, satana' (slanderer). In Greek texts it was accompanied by the name 'diabolos' (accuser). Associating the name 'diabel' with proto Indo-European *deivos (God), whose Iranic continuant, after the introduction of God's new name from the root *bhag-, became the name of an 'old god', i.e. the 'wrong god' (close to the meaning of 'szatan'), due to chronology and scope of usage cannot confront criticism.

Keywords

EN

LEXICOLOGY; NAMES OF ANGELS; NAMES OF DEVILS; SLAVIC LANGUAGES

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Rocznik Slawistyczny
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 57
• Pages: 89-100
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Siatkowska Ewa

• Ewa Siatkowska, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Instytut Slawistyki Zachodniej i Poludniowej, ul. Krakowskie Przedmiescie 26/28, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

10PLAAAA073429