K sémantice staroslověnského pozorъ
On the Semantics of the Old Church Slavonic pozorъ

Summary/Abstract: The Old Church Slavonic noun pozorъ has, besides the meaning ‘spectacle, theater’, also the negative meaning ‘reproach, shame’. This negative meaning is furthermore attested in some other Slavonic languages, especially in old and contemporary Russian and in Russian dialects. The supposed semantic shift *‘spectacle, theater’→ ‘shame’ is apparently associated with a medieval custom – the pillory of the culprits who are exposed to the punishment in public and who become an object of general ridicule and humiliation. The sequence of the semantic evolution can then be expressed as follows: *‘spectacle’ → ‘spectacle that defiles and humiliates man’ → ‘shame’. However, one cannot rule out some influence of the Greek model (Greek θρίαμβος ‘scandal’).

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