чудь

According to Vasmer, the term probably originally referred to Germanic people, and derives from Proto-Slavic *ťuďь (“foreign, strange”), from Gothic 𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰 (þiuda, “people”); compare to чужо́й (čužój). Alternatively, perhaps related to Sami čuđđe (“enemy”), but that would require early contact between East Slavs and Sami, and the Sami word might rather be a loanword from Slavic.

The Sami word can be explained as a loan from Slavic during the war between Sami and the Čuđek (if this war has any historical evidence). ^[1]

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• Homophones: чуть (čutʹ)

чудь • (čudʹ) f inan (genitive чу́ди, uncountable, relational adjective чудско́й)

1. (collective) Chud
2. (collective, mythology, Urals, Siberia) a legendary people group (extinct or still living a subterranean life), builders of burial mounds and other prehistoric monuments
   • 1865, П. А. Кропоткин, Поездка в Окинский караул:

     Об этих постройках носится предание, вообще очень распространённое в Сибири, что некогда жила тут «чудь» и жила до того времени, пока не стал показываться на горах лес (белая берёза).

     Ob etix postrojkax nositsja predanije, voobšče očenʹ rasprostranjónnoje v Sibiri, što nekogda žila tut «čudʹ» i žila do tovo vremeni, poka ne stal pokazyvatʹsja na gorax les (belaja berjóza).

     There is a legend – a very common one in Siberia – regarding these structures, that long ago the “Chud” lived here, and that they lived until the time when the woods (white birch) first started to grow on the mountains.

• чудин (čudin)
• чудско́й (čudskój)
• Чудско́е о́зеро (Čudskóje ózero)
• чухна́ (čuxná)
• чухо́нец (čuxónec)
• чучка (čučka) ^[2]
• tuss (identical creature in Norwegian folklore)

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