Mõnest kriminaalse taustaga (slängi)sõnast eesti (krija)keeles: ment ja parask
Some words of a criminal background (slang) in the Estonian standard language: ment and parask

Summary/Abstract: Two Russian loanwords borrowed into standard Estonian – ment and parask – are discussed. Those two loanwords are specific for originating in the criminal subculture, to be more exact, in prison slang. The article presents the more credible hypotheses advanced on the origin or etymology of those words.The word ment ’policeman, copper’ is a Russian loanword probably originating in Polish slang. The word is also likely to be linked with the Russian ментик – pelisse (fur-trimmed jacket, multiple breasted, with cords and eyelets, worn loosely over the hussar’s uniform dolman in winter). The word ment has probably been borrowed into Estonian in the 1970s or 1980s to refer to police; policeman (then militia). The word parask (Rus парaша) must originate in the period when the feast of St. Paraskeva was introduced in Russia. The feast took place in October, when rain and mud were plenty. Hence the folk started calling the saint Dirty Paraskeva (Rus Прасковья-Грязнится), later also Dirty Parasha (Rus Парaша-Грязнится) or just Parasha (Rus Парaша). After that parasha came to be used to refer to anything filthy, including toilets. Since then the slang word has attracted even more senses. The Estonian parask is a polysemantic word, adopted into Estonian at several different periods and from different donor languages, which adds the Estonian word a homonymous character. The sense of a toilet vessel was probably attached to the Estonian parask either shortly before the emergence of the Republic of Estonia or in its early years, while the Russian criminal world called the vessel Paraskeva Fedorovna. In 1960 the word parask first made its way to the Dictionary of Stan­dard Estonian, where it has successfully survived through every next edition.

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