верста

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Russian

Etymology

Inherited from Old East Slavic вьрста (vĭrsta), from Proto-Slavic *vьrsta. Cognate with Ukrainian верства́ (verstvá), Old East Slavic вьрста (vĭrsta, age, couple, age-mate, verst (measure of length)), Old Church Slavonic врьста (vrĭsta, age), Bulgarian връст (vrǎst, age), Serbo-Croatian вр́ста (row, type), Slovene vŕsta (row, string, type, age) (tonal orthography), vȓst (row, type) (tonal orthography), Czech vrstva (layer), Slovak vrstva, Polish warstwa (row, layer), Upper Sorbian woršta. Cognate with Russian верте́ть (vertétʹ, to turn); per Vasmer, the initial meaning was "turning over of a plow". Further cognate with Lithuanian var̃stas (verst, distance plowed at one time in one direction) (also varsnà), participial vir̃stas, Oscan vorsus (measure of arable land, literally turning over), Latin versus (earlier vorsus), Sanskrit वृत्त (vṛttá, round, twisted). Compare све́рстник (svérstnik, coeval, age-mate).

Pronunciation

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Noun

верста́ (verstáf inan (genitive версты́, nominative plural вёрсты, genitive plural вёрст, relational adjective верстово́й)

  1. (dated) verst (unit of length equal to 1,066.8 m), used in many expressions
    За версту́ ви́дно (слы́шно, па́хнет)Za verstú vídno (slýšno, páxnet)One can see (hear, smell) (from) a mile away
    обходи́ть за версту́ (idiom)obxodítʹ za verstúavoid like the plague
    • 1836, Александр Пушкин, “Глава III. Крепость”, in Капитанская дочка, London: Henry S. King & Co.; English translation from Ekaterina Telfer, transl., The Captain's Daughter, 1875:
      Белогорская крепость находилась в сорока верстах от Оренбурга.
      Belogorskaja krepostʹ naxodilasʹ v soroka verstax ot Orenburga.
      The fortress of Byĕlogorsk was situated at a distance of forty versts from Orenburg.
  2. (dated) verst-post, milepost, milestone
    Synonym: верстово́й столб (verstovój stolb)
  3. (colloquial) kilometre

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Armenian: վերստ (verst)

References

  • Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “верста”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress