Plesmeřisko: Some notes on one nonce word Cover Image

Plesmeřisko: poznámky k jednomu okazionalismu
Plesmeřisko: Some notes on one nonce word

Author(s): Marta Šimečková
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Western Slavic Languages
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Ústav pro jazyk český
Keywords: dialect lexeme; etymology; nonce word; root morpheme plez-/plaz-; semantic shift

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the word plesmeřisko, attested in a collection of Moravian short stories from the 19th century. This word with unclear meaning was found to be a nonce word, i.e., a word unattested in other sources. It may be an augmentative derived from the dialect word plezmero (with the original meaning ‘unbottened shirt’, hence ‘bare chest’, later used as a derogatory word especially for a disheveled, lazy woman). The word plezmero is a compound consisting of the unclear second element -mero and the first component plez-, which originates in the Czech verb plazit (se) (‘to creep, crawl’). Other dialect words with the root plez-/plaz- are explored in a synchronic and diachronic perspective.

  • Issue Year: 107/2024
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 96-101
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Czech
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