Was ever “сладкий” synonymous to “пресный” in Russian

Question

Fresh (non-salt) water is also called sweet in English. Surprisingly, the word sweet is also used in some Slavic languages.

To be precise:

• in Polish, woda słodka
• in Czech, sladká voda
• in Croatian (as well as in Serbian and Bosnian, may be with different spelling), slatka voda

Also, there are some Slavic languages where literally питьевая means "пресная" (it worth to mention that the same we can tell about above-mentioned languages, it's just that this expression are not 100% interchangeable)

For example, in Macedonian, питка вода. Though in Bulgarian, which is close relative of Macedonian, it is said прясна вода. In Ukrainian one should say прісна вода, in Belorussian, прэсная вада. But the two last examples are not that surprising, since both Ukrainian and Belorussian belong to the same subbranch of Slavic languages that Russian belongs to as well.

The question is: Has it ever existed expression "cладкая вода" in Russian, with that very meaning. If yes, when and how it loose battle to "пресная вода"?

UPD: here is an excerpt from Church Slavonic dictionary:

сладкїй - cладкий; весьма приятный; добрый, кроткий.

This does not give any hint.

Answer 1

In some Russian dictionaries "пресный" and "сладкий" are listed as synonyms, but now I'd rather hear "пресный" in meaning "не сладкий", i.e. as antonym of "сладкий". I think these words were used as antonyms long time ago and only within some specific context.

P.S. The most common meanings for "пресный" are: without salt (water), tasteless (food & drinks); While "сладкий" means: with sugar (food or drinks) or pleasant (about something else).

UPDATE

Olga, sorry for not being useful with my previous answer, but I've dug a bit more and found that there are mentions of "сладкая вода" in religious texts:

«25. [Моисей] возопил к Господу, и Господь показал ему дерево, и он бросил его в воду, и вода сделалась сладкою.» — Ветхий Завет, Книга Исход, Глава 15.

«17. воды краденые сладки, и утаенный хлеб приятен» — Ветхий Завет, Книга Притчи, Глава 9.

«12. Не может, братия мои, смоковница приносить маслины или виноградная лоза смоквы. Также и один источник не [может] изливать соленую и сладкую воду.» — Новый Завет, Книга Иакова, Глава 3.

«11. Течет ли из одного отверстия источника сладкая и горькая [вода]?» — Новый Завет, Книга Иакова, Глава 3.

«9. Сладкие воды сделаются солеными, и все друзья ополчатся друг против друга; тогда сокроется ум, и разум удалится в свое хранилище.» — Ветхий Завет, Третья книга Ездры, Глава 5.

The phrase "сладкая вода" was used in the meaning: не горькая, не солёная, приятная на вкус вода.

The phrase "пресный хлеб" is antonym to "квасной хлеб", but I've not found any other use of word "пресный" in the Bible, so I can conclude that "пресная вода" is younger phrase than "сладкая вода".

The most common meaning of "пресный хлеб" is — unleavened or with leavening agents; but you can find another meaning — containing not salted water.

I still cannot answer your question about how and when "пресная вода" won over "сладкая вода", but I can suggest that "пресная вода" has it's origins from cooking unleavened bread.

I can only suggest you to search through old sources for occurrences of "пресная вода" to find out how and when.

Answer 2

As mentioned by Sergiy, this meaning was used in Church Slavonic and I believe in Proto-Slavic too (as well as in most IE languages).

The earliest mention in Old Russian is I believe this PC excerpt:

И бѣ ту вода горка, и възропташа людье на Бога, и показа имъ древо, и вложи е Моисѣй въ воду, и осладишася воды

which is a loose Bible citation translated into Old Russian from Old Church Slavonic (or maybe from Greek).

It's hard to say whether it's a proper translation or a calque, however, the author deemed it clear enough to leave as is (as well as did the authors of the Synodal translation).

Answer 3

I didn't encounter сладкая in meaning of пресная in Russian. Moreover, I cannot realize its using this way. Being applied to food or drinks, сладкая may be used to express вкусная (tasty, delicious), although its using in this meaning considered old-fashioned and outdated nowadays. Сладкая вода literally assotiates with lemonade.

Answer 4

For my 24 years of speaking Russian I have never heard “сладкий” used as a synonym to “пресный” in day-to-day speech. Moreover, here is a clear meaning of these words:

• http://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9
• http://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9

About examples, written by Sergiy: I suggest it could be used in Old-Russian language, but it is never used today.

Answer 5

пресная - water with no taste (synonim for water - river water - not sea)

сладкая - water with sugar.