1

Recently I started thinking about what an old equivalent of the word "серьёзный" could be, maybe being used in Kievan Rus or in general before the word came to the language. It is clearly a loanword; one compare serious in English and sérieux in French.

There are examples in other Slavic languages. In Serbian, for instance, "серьёзный" would be ozbiljan (comes from the verb zbiti se, related to Russian "сбыться"). Could there be an old analogue of this in Russian?

In general, my question would be whether at some point in time there existed a different word, maybe with a Slavic root, which was used to mean "серьёзный".

Improve this question
3
  • I also posted this question on the русский язык stack exchange, here is a link to it with one answer provided.
    – Воин
    Commented Jul 15 at 0:44
  • 1
    The problem is that almost every word has got several meanings. So it's better to add a sentence or some context which meaning you pfefer.
    – V.V.
    Commented Jul 15 at 6:35
  • Yes, e.g. "серьезные намерения", "серьезное лицо", "ты серьезно?" could be rendered using different Old Russian words.
    – Sergey Slepov
    Commented Jul 15 at 11:57

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

I think you can use word "чинный" https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%87%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9

Improve this answer
0

I'm not entirely sure about the context, but you may want to check сложный, непростой, тяжёлый, суровый, строгий, обстоятельный, важный ("важный, как хуй пятиэтажный" - Russians say that when someone is so serious that it is almost comical).

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.