Значения слова "находить(ся)"

Question

В русском языке у слова находить есть три значения:

• собственно находить в смысле "находить то, что потерял/искал"
• "считать, полагать":

  Я нахожу это странным - Я считаю это странным

• с суффиксом ся (находиться) - это указание на положение в пространстве

Во французском языке есть глагол trouver, который используется точно в таких же значениях: два значения - это находить и считать, полагать, и третье - с возвратной частицей (se trouver) - в значении находиться, располагаться.
Является ли это простым совпадением или такое употребление слова находить пришло в русский язык из французского в эпоху, когда тот был популярен в России?

Answer 1

I'm going to answer in English since my Russian isn't good enough yet.

This is not a coincidence, it's a conspiracy. ;)

And it's even larger than just French and Russian. We must assume it is at least transeuropean, if not paneuropean.

trouver (fr) = trovare (it) = finden (de) = находить (ru) = βρίσκω (gr)

Same two meanings in all the above languages.

se trouver (fr) = trovarsi (it) = sich befinden (de) = находиться (ru) = βρίσκομαι (gr)

Same meaning for all five languages (and probably others I don't know about).

Languages were and are developed by copying or cloning words and meaning from other languages, typically more advanced in one way or another. For example, English doesn't have a native word for progress, which is simply the Latin word, meaning "step forth", which was copied into English, like zillions of others. In Latin languages, it's simply a natural evolution of the original Latin word (progrès, progresso, etc). In Greek, it's πρόοδος ("forth-way"). In German, progressus/progrès was translated as Fortschritt ("forth-step").

Likewise, in your trouver/находить example, the spectrum of meaning could have been cloned from or influenced by French, both in German and Russian. From French, not the other way round, because French was culturally dominant in Europe during the 17th and 18th century.

Even more important than French are, obviously, Latin and Greek.

The people who evolved the German language were, of course, very literate and knew the classic Greek and Latin literature, from which they took inspiration. One might argue, tongue in cheek, and to echo back to the beginning of my answer, that if many European savants took inspiration from others, this is indeed conspiration (a conspiracy ;).

And it definitely is a conspiracy in that, as a result of so much mutual inspiration across the centuries, there is a common spirit in our languages.

If you want the historico-philological view (rather than my guess, based on having learnt some languages), you have to consult an etymological dictionary of the Russian language, which I don't have at my disposal, neither in paper form nor online.