In the Old Russian language, there was the word D'tinc "inner fortress, Kremlin", which is still quite well known as historicism. Semantically, it is in a correlative (correlative) pair with the noun ostrog "external fortress in contrast to detinets": "having seen the Polovech power, the people(m) commanded everyone to flee from the prison to detinets" (Lavrentiev chronicle under 1152); " Izyaslav also came to Belugorod, and standing near detinets (...) Rostislav burned the prison of Byashe before him " (Ipatiev chronicle under 1161. Dictionary of the Old Russian language (XI-XIV centuries). Moscow, 1988. Vol. III). It can be assumed that for native speakers of the Russian language at the time when this word was in active use, its formal and semantic structure was quite clear. However, over time, this "internal form" was lost, or rather, it was still possible to identify the root base of the word with the morpheme det- (praslav. *det -), but the nature of the connection between the meanings of "child, child" and "strengthening, kremlin" is formulated with great difficulty. In the well-known work "Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature" by A. N. Afanasyev, the word detinets illustrates the reconstructed ideas about the need for a bloody sacrifice (up to a human one) during the foundation of the city. These ideas themselves do not concern us here at all (however, about the so-called "construction sacrifice" - "Bauopfer" in German ethnological terminology-see: Zelenin D. K. Totems-trees in the legends and rituals of European peoples, Moscow-L., 1937; Baiburin A. K. Dwelling in the rituals and ideas of the Eastern Slavs., 1983, etc.). Here is his retelling of the legend of the foundation of Novgorod: "when Slavensk was desolate and it was necessary to cut down a new city, the people's elders, following the ancient custom, sent messengers in all directions before sunrise, with instructions to capture the first living creature that they met. A child came across; it was taken ... Read more