The cultural life of Europe at the beginning of the XIX century was marked by the appearance of a new type of dandies-English dandies, who became real trendsetters. According to R. K. Barnhart's etymological dictionary, the word dandy appeared in Scotland around the 1780s, and became fashionable in London in 1813-1819 (The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology / ed. By Robert K. Barnhart, Wilson, 1988, p. 251). This fashionable English word instantly penetrated many European languages.
Apparently, the first person who introduced the Russian reader to this word was the famous translator of the XIX century S. S. de Chaplet-the author of translations of the works of the French describer of morals Victor Jouy, popular at the beginning of the XIX century, whose book "The London Hermit, or A Description of the mores and customs of the English at the beginning of the XIX century" began to be published in Russian in 1822.
When describing the upper class, V. Rui spoke about two types of English dandies, one of which - fascionebly-is admired by the author, and about the other type of English dandies he spoke with a clear sense of disdain, seeing in them the result of damage to morals:
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"In all the streets, in all the public places, you meet creatures that do not look like men, women, or monkeys, but who seem to combine the distinctive features of the three genera. In my day, they didn't even know what a dandy was. We also had dandies, but they were dressed in rich brocade, velvet and gold-embroidered dresses, with swords, as befits a well-born person."
It is interesting here that when transmitting the English word dandy, Chaplet used the grammatical form of dandy, which suggests the possibility of declension of the word (cf.genius, Eugene), however, despite the popularity of the book by Victor Zhui (again reprinted in 1828), this form did not take root.
In this regard, one cannot unconditionally agree with the opinion of L. P. Grossman that A. S. Pushkin introduced this word into the everyday life of Russian speech, "having first mentioned this fashionable expression in the first chapter of his novel" (Grossman L. P. Collected Works, Moscow, 1928, Vol. 1), since the poet began working on this chapter only recently. in 1823, and published it in 1825:
Here is my Onegin at large;
Cut in the latest fashion;
How dandy London dressed -
And finally saw the light.
(1. IV)
It remains unknown whether Pushkin was able to get acquainted with this word from the already mentioned work of V. Zhuy and whether he read it in the translation of Chaplet or in the French original.
Another work from which the poet could undoubtedly recognize this word is a poem by J. R. R. Tolkien. Byron's "Beppo" ("A broken Dandy lately on my travel"), which Pushkin, by all accounts, read in a French translation by A. Pichot and E. Salle (Oeuvres de lord Byron, traduit de l'anglais, Paris, 1820, vol. 7), where the word dandy was defined as petit-maitre anglais "English dandy".
This poem by Byron appears in the preface to a separate edition of the first chapter of Eugene Onegin as an indication that this particular chapter of Pushkin's novel in verse "resembles Beppo, the comic work of the gloomy Byron" (Pushkin A. S. Complete Works, Moscow, 1937. Vol. 6.). A large number of reminiscences and references are made to the author of the book. the allusions in Pushkin's novel largely confirm the opinion of researchers that "the complex influence of Beppo, Don Juan and Childe Harold inspired him with the idea of Onegin" (Veselovsky A. N. Western Influence in New Russian Literature, Moscow, 1906).
There are also some poorly founded proposals that require actual confirmation by O. A. Proskurin that:-
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keen learned the word dandy only in 1823 "in the atmosphere of "European" Odessa and in the Anglomaniac environment of Vorontsov " (Proskurin O. A. Pushkin's poetry, or mobile palimpsest, Moscow, 1999). The fact is that the poet began writing the first stanzas of Eugene Onegin in Kishinev in May 1823, even before meeting Count M. S. Vorontsov and his entourage, which took place in Odessa in July 1823.
In all of Pushkin's creative legacy, the word dandy appears only three times: in Eugene Onegin (1823), Egyptian Nights (1835), and in a review of Zagoskin's novel Yuri Miloslavsky (1830). Moreover, all three times it is used in the English spelling (which Yu. M. Lotman for some reason called "transcription"), and in the first case it is also italicized.
But in the same "Eugene Onegin", where the English barbarism dandy, although mentioned only once, is still the key word (if not for the whole novel, then for its first chapter). It has many contextual synonyms, which were noticed by commentators of the novel.
Many of dandy's periphrastic designations emphasize his art of dressing, his pedantry in clothing:
The second Chadaev, my Evgeny,
Fearing jealous judgments,
He was a prig in his clothes
, and what we called a dandy.
(1.XXV)
The appearance of the word frant here is not accidental. It was with its help that Pushkin defined the meaning of the word dandy in the "Notes to Eugene Onegin" ("Dandy, dandy"), apparently wanting to focus readers ' attention even more on this fashionable neologism, which was already clear without explanation. But Pushkin gave this interpretation only in 1833 when preparing the publication of his novel, which Yu. M. Lotman did not pay attention to, saying that Pushkin "three times emphasized the stylistic significance of the word "dandy" in Russian as a fashionable neologism, giving it in English transcription, italics and providing a Russian translation" (Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin, St. Petersburg, 1997).
In their costume pedantry, the dandies of the Pushkin era followed the famous English dandy J. Brummel( Brummel), who was the first to starch cambric neckerchiefs, which explains the appearance of the combination "starched pedant" in the drafts of Eugene Onegin (7.LI). In another draft of this line, the pedants have turned into dandies, and the true dandies are recognized in them by their starched tie and fashionable corset:
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Here they seem to be smart note takers
Empty head, corset,
Starched tie and lorgnette.
(7.LI)
In the final version of this stanza, when describing the dandies, the poet put impudence in the first place:
Here they seem to be smart note takers
Your impertinence, your vest
And an inattentive lorgnette.
(7.LI)
It was impudence that was an indispensable attribute of the early dandies, as Pushkin wrote in his "Novel in Letters" (letter VIII): "Men are perfectly dissatisfied with uoeiofatuite indolente ["languid foppery", French. - S. Ya.], which is still news here. They are infuriated all the more because I am extremely polite and decent, and they do not understand what exactly my impudence consists in, although they feel that I am impudent" (Pushkin A. S. Poln. sobr. op. In 17 vols. L., 1948. Vol. 8. Part 1). "The Russian dandy of the Pushkin era," wrote Yu. M. Lotman, " cultivated (...) shocking carelessness and audacity of treatment "(Lotman. Decree, op.), which was quite consistent with the word impudent:
And a stray traveler,
The starched brat...
(8. XXVI)
In the white manuscript, the last line of this stanza corresponded to: "The Brilliant London Impudent" (8. XXVI). It is not known whether V. V. Nabokov's opinion that we are talking here about the famous Anglomaniac Count M. S. Vorontsov is correct. And the epithet perekrachalenny reminded of the exaggeration of the dandy in following the fashion of J. Brummel, " what imitators of the famous crank caused ridicule from French ptitmeters in the 1820s "(Nabokov V. V. Comments to the novel by A. S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin", St. Petersburg, 1998).
The attitude to the outrageous behavior of dandies and to their exotic clothes was different at that time. An example of a clearly unfriendly attitude can be found in the memoirs of Count F. V. Rostopchin (1763-1826) " The Life of Rostopchin, written from nature in ten minutes "(he wrote them in his declining years, being already at an old age), where the author tried to reveal the content of the Russian descriptive phrase vainglorious dandies with the help of the word dandy: "I've always been disgusted by vain dandies (fats, dandy) and fools. (...) The mannerisms aroused in me the most unpleasant feeling. Rouged men, race-
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painted and decorated women seemed pathetic to me" (Dictionary of memorable people of the Russian land, compiled by D. N. Bantysh-Kamensky, St. Petersburg, 1847, Part 3).
The English spelling dandy, characteristic of Pushkin (which, unfortunately, is not recorded in the "Dictionary of the Pushkin Language"), was in fashion for a relatively short time and is found in other authors until the middle of the XIX century.
Penetrating into the Russian language through the French medium, the English word dandy sometimes acquired a French look-dandy. There is such a form in translations from French, but, being an unusual word, it is highlighted in italics in the text: "Beautiful, dear Dundee! Go to the torture in your new dress, squeeze with your boots, suffocate in your new waistcoat, and hold your hat in your hand, for fear of spoiling the charming cleaning of your hair" (Jeanin J. Small industry of Paris / / Moscow Telegraph. 1832. Part 45. N 9. May. Camera obscura of books and people by N 9). However, this form has not been widely adopted either.
In the era of Pushkin, the use of the dandy form began. It is mentioned by the Decembrist V. I. Shteingel in the "Diary of our memorable journey from Chita to Petrovsky Zavod in 1830" (September 8). It is also found in translated articles of the Moscow Observer magazine (1835. Part 1; 1836. Part 9), etc. The dandy form has become so widespread in fiction and journalism that N. I. Grech included it in the article "ABC comparative" in the "Encyclopedia Lexicon" published by A. Plyushar (St. Petersburg., 1835. Vol. 2), as an example of the correct transmission of the English word by means of the Russian alphabet, which contributed to the consolidation of the norm. This form proved to be resilient and has survived to the present day, successfully withstanding the competition that lasted for more than a century with the dandy variant, which appeared in the middle of the XIX century and was supported by famous writers and scientists.
The history of the word dandy in Russian is connected not only with its orthographic transmission in Russian letters, but also with the semantic relations that it entered into when it was included in the lexico - semantic group of names of "carriers of panache". Most of the texts of this time distinguish between the meanings of such Anglicisms as dandy, fashionable and gentleman. For example, the same N. I. Grech warned against mixing the concepts of dandy and gentleman in "Travel Letters from England, Germany and France", pointing out that "a dandy is a geek of a gentleman, and therefore we can find some common features in them" (Greek N. I. Travel Notes from England, Germany and France. St. Petersburg, 1839, Part 1.).
Looking ahead chronologically, I would like to give an interesting example of such concretization of the meanings of these words: "Dandy (Dandy),
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the English word that has come into use in modern Europe to denote an elegant man of the world and is equivalent to the word fashionable. The difference between the two is that the dandy creates fashion, and the fashionable follows it" (Reference Encyclopedia published by K. Kraya under the editorship of A. V. Starchevsky in 20 volumes. SPb., 1855. Vol. IV).
The epoch of the 40s-60s of the XIX century is characterized by two opposite processes related to the history of the word dandy: on the one hand, the gradual adaptation of the word, on the other - the exit from active use, due to the end of the era of dandyism. At the same time, this word continued to be perceived as a foreign language and sometimes required an explanation, which is confirmed in A. F. Veltman's novel " The New Emelya, or Transformations "(1845, Part IV, Chapter 1). It is curious that unlike A. S. Pushkin, who explained the meaning of the word dandy as a new name for dandy Veltman plays up the interpretation of this neologism with the help of the old, almost extinct word shematon (in" The Captain's Daughter "- shamaton): "... two hours later, the body on straight springs stopped in front of the porch of Artamon Matveyevich's house, and Zachary Erasmovich jumped out of it like a clever dandy, or in Russian shematon" (Read more about this word is difficult to interpret: Valeev G. K., Dobrodomov I. G. Reading Pushkin... ili Slovo v zashchiti shamaton [or a Word in defense of shamaton]. 1999. N 6).
The need to explain this word led to its appearance on the pages of dictionaries. The first lexicographic fixation of the word dandy took place not in the "Dictionary of Church Slavonic and Russian compiled by the Academy of Sciences" in 1847, as erroneously indicated in the comments of Yu.M. Lotman, but in the fourth volume of the "Reference Encyclopedia" published by K. Kraya under the editorship of A. V. Starchevsky, an example from which has already been given.
The disappearance of the word dandy from Russian usage was also indicated by the dictionary of a certain A. S.: "Dandy. A dandy of good taste. This expression became obsolete and was replaced by the words fashionable and gentleman, just as the Russian obsolete word dandy was replaced by the modern decent person and survived only as a synonym for a person inclined to panache, but not having taste" (Explanation of 1000 foreign words used in the Russian language. Compiled and published by A. S. M., 1859). The compiler of this dictionary clearly jumped to conclusions, reflecting the interaction of the names of dandies (dandy, fashionable and gentleman) at a time when the results of this interaction were far from being finalized.
Other dictionaries of foreign words did not contrast these words, apparently, due to the fact that feshenable gradually began to fall out of use, and dandy continued to occur in artistic and journalistic texts, and usually in more general terms.-
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Uglov V. N. Explanatory dictionary of foreign words used in the Russian language: "Dandy, English Person who dresses in fashion" (Uglov V. N. Explanatory dictionary of foreign words used in the Russian language. St. Petersburg, 1859). Although sometimes dictionaries reflected the peculiarity of the word's use outside the Russian language: "Dandy, Eng. A dandy who dresses in the latest fashion; a comic nickname of the English in America" (Complete dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. St. Petersburg, 1861).
In the general dictionaries of the Russian language, the word penetrated only in 1862, appearing in the fourth issue of the "Explanatory Dictionary of the living Great Russian Language" by V. I. Dahl, where it is explained by a number of synonyms, including archaic ones: "Dandy M. neskl. English, fashionable dandy, grip, chistyak, modnik, dandy lion, Gogol; dandy of the big world "(Moscow, 1862. Vol. I). F. G. Toll's encyclopedic dictionary focuses on the social status of a person: "A dandy (English), a man who dresses constantly in fashion, of decent origin, has a sufficient income and has good taste" (Toll F. G. Desktop Dictionary for references in all branches of knowledge. SPb., 1864. Vol. 2) Almost literally, the same wording is reproduced in the eight-volume "Desktop Encyclopedia", published at the end of the XIX century (Moscow, 1892, Vol. 3).
The word dandy continues to appear quite often on the pages of modern dictionaries and artistic and journalistic texts. So, during August 2002, it met several times on the pages of newspapers: "An immaculate dandy, the famous composer Raymond Pauls, was subjected to a boorish attack. A huge cake was literally thrown on his head "(Mk. 2002. Aug. 3); " Milan hosted Men's Fashion Week. The designers came to a general conclusion: the style of the dandy from the Atlantic coast dictates looseness and elegant carelessness. Outwardly, this is a completely democratic independent man who prefers to always be irresistible" (Mir Novostei. 2002. 6 Aug.).
Unlike some of its synonyms, which also appeared in the Russian language in the XIX century (feshenybl, fat, pshyut), the word dandy still remains relevant, although it is perceived as a kind of historicism. If only the adjective fashionable remains from the ephemeral word fashionable, then dandy has been preserved in the language to our time.
So, in one of the articles by A. V. Druzhinin, we find the formation of dendic in the compound word dendic-vulgar, used by the author when describing the meaning of the word gentleman in Russian and English: "We do not think it superfluous to note that in England, and especially in old-time England, the word gentleman is and was not accepted in the narrow sense that it dendically-in the vulgar sense, what is it to him?
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gives the rest of Europe. The immaculate lion of London may not be recognized as a gentleman, and Crabb's shabby caftan did not prevent him from receiving this name from the first celebrities of his century" (Druzhinin A.V. Sobr. soch. SPb., 1865. Vol.4). However, this adjective has no lexicographic fixation and is clearly an occasional one.
In the preface to the book by J.-A. B arbe d'Orevilli "On dandyism and George Brummell" there is another adjective - dandist: dandist lifestyle, dandist grace, dandist lightness and grace, dandist style (O. Weinstein). About dandyism and Barba d'Orevilly / / Barbet d'Orevilly J.-A. On Dandyism and George Brammell, Moscow, 2000). But this adjective is most likely associated with the word dandyism, rather than with dandy: if we compare it with other adjectives based on the suffixes-east - i-sk - and included in such word-forming chains as, for example, Marxism-Marxist-Marxist, sophism-sophist-sophist, we can conclude that in the dandyism-dandyist chain, one link is missing - the dandyist.
One can hardly agree that in the Russian language there is also the adjective dandy, which for many years scientists have relied on when describing the concept of superposition (combination, interpenetration, diffusion, application, interference) of morphemes. This adjective for the word dandy, as well as others, is not recorded in any Russian dictionary.
Summing up the history of the word dandy on the basis of the Russian language, we should assign a special role to A. S. Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin": the word is known to native speakers of modern Russian primarily due to the fact that it is present on the first pages of a popular novel in verse, familiar to any high school graduate.
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