ON THE ETYMOLOGY OF RUS. IZDEVATSIA AND IZMYVATSIA

The paper discusses the new etymology of the Russian verbs издеваться and измываться ‘to jeer, to mock'. It is based on the version of V. A. Merkulova who analyses them together with the synonyms and structural parallels, e.g. изгаляться, издекáться and gives the initial meaning ‘to cause damage (of evil)'. According to the new etymology, the forms like given are the derivatives of the verbs of motion or state. The prefixes из-, з-, с-, вы- and у- and postfix -ся have the meaning ‘to act excessively or too intensively' or ‘to be in the condition which is beyond the norm'. E.g. dial. изводúться from водить, dial. издергáться from дергать, dial. изъезжáться from ездить, dial. измогáться from мочь, dial. изнывáться from ныть. It seems that издеваться and измываться may be analysed in the same way as they are derived from the verbs of physical motion девать-деть and мыть correspondingly.