Is there a verb "шкодовать" in Russian?

Question

When I was reading the novel "Дикая охота Короля Стаха" by belarusian writer Uladzimir Karatkievich , I stumbled upon this phrase:

А они детей из Ярков шкодовали?

I searched for this verb, "шкодовать," in many dictionaries, but didn't find it in any one.

Intrigued, I got the original text, written in the Belarusian language, and noted down the original phrase:

А яны дзяцей з Яркоў шкадавалі?

In Belarusian, according to wiktionary, the Belarusian verb шкадаваць can mean щадить.

https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%88%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%86%D1%8C

So, is there a verb "шкодовать" in Russian?

My bet is that "шкадаваць = шкодовать" is a sloppy translation, a blunder, and there's no such verb as "шкодовать" in Russian.

Answer 1

Without any context, I was unable to grasp what this word means here because my first assumption was that it's a cognate to the Russian word шкодить (to be mischievous). Only given the context and the fact that I know a bit of Ukrainian (Ukrainian шкода means "жалко", "it's a pity"), was I able to work out what this word means here.

So there's:

• Ukrainian шкода which means "вред" or "жалко", and шкодувати which means "жалеть", "щадить".
• Belarussian шкада which means "жалко", "жаль" and шкадаваць which means "жалеть", "щадить".
• Belarussian шкода which means "вред".
• Russian (dialectal or dated?) шкода which generally speaking means "вред" or "шалость", and Russian шкодить which means "озорничать".

It's indeed very strange to translate a regular Belarussian word into Russian using some surzhyk Ukrainian word, which evokes confusing connotations in Russian. I agree that this is a bad translation.

Answer 2

https://vuzdoc.ru/63421/literatura/slovar_dialektnyh_trudnyh_ponimaniya_slov

I don't think it's a bad translation — it's a dialectal word used in Полесье, a region where all four countries meet: Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. So as a dialectal word, it isn't very common in Russian. But the translator could have at least mentioned that in his comments.

https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Полесье

There are a lot of words like this in any language, used by locals, here are some dictionaries as examples:

http://gramota.ru/slovari/types/17_4

Answer 3

I have never heard that particular verb in my life. But you need to understand that, in principle, in the inflectional-synthetic language, you can create a verb from any existing noun (for example, from "шкода" - prank, rowdiness, something like this: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Шкода_(значения) ) - and its meaning will be clear. Well, when it is clear and when not, and to whom exactly....

There is quite such an dialect form or ukrainianism "шкодить"; And this "шкодовать" is obviously a continuous form from this...

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As for the Belorussian word шкадаваць, it is clearly a different word, and it's just a mistaken translation in the book.