When reading works of fiction, we often encounter words whose meaning is not clear to us, and the texts are not always provided with comments explaining the "dark places". For example, not everyone today knows the word mantifolia, which comes across in the works of A. P. Chekhov, and even more so the nuances of its meaning. The fate of this word and others like it interests primarily linguists. For an explanation of the meaning of an incomprehensible word, it is most logical to refer to lexicographic sources.
The word mantifolia received the following coverage in one of the modern dictionaries: "mantifolia" pathetic speech " (Chekhov et al.). Probably, seminarism. From the Greek (...) "clairvoyant", "prophet", (...) "speech" "(Fasmer M. Etymological Dictionary of the Russian language. M., 1986. T. P). This interpretation looks quite plausible, but we are confused by the second root of a two-syllable word, or rather just one sound. Interesting is the opinion of B. S. Schwarzkopf, who devoted a separate article to mantifolia: "l in mantifolia is the result of a regular phonetic dissimilarization of n-n in n-l (replacing one of two identical or similar sounds with another, less similar in terms of articulation with the one that remained unchanged) "(Russian speech. 1983. N 1). But whether it is necessary to complicate the origin of the word so much, looking for "phonetic dissimilarities" in it, especially since this word is "Chekhov's circle", in fact, all the cases of using the mantifolium known to us are connected with Anton Pavlovich Chekhov and his inner circle. And it is unlikely that a writer would bother with such complex phonetic operations.
In addition, in the dictionary entry of M. Fasmer we find a mark given in parentheses: "(Chekhov et al.)", and "others" is Sedoy, and under this pseudonym A. P. Chekhov's older brother, the writer and journalist Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov (1885-1913), was published.
The interpretation of the mantifolia is contained in anot ...
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