Аннотация: Velikiye Prokhody (Great Passages). An essay on geographical and historical associations.
Velikiye Prokhody (Great Passages). An essay on geographical and historical associations.
The news release mentioned the settlement of Velikiye Prokhody [Velikiye Prohody] (Kharkiv region).
At first, this name didn't interest me at all. "Prokhody" ["Passages"], at first glance, are something like a gorge in the mountains along which the road goes.
But after a while, a doubt arose: what mountain gorge in the Kharkov region?
And what if - "march", "campaign"? Some great military leader led huge masses of cavalry on a campaign - is there a memory in the form of the name "Velikiye Prokhody" ("Great Passages")?
It's already more interesting.
I open the Explanatory Dictionary by Vladimir Dal.
What did I find worthy of attention?
"ШЛЯХ, ROADS ... Signs of passage, of a horse passage and a run ..." [unofficial translation] A huge army passed, and a road left after the army ?
"ФАРВАТЕР, FARVATER, the ... channel of the river, the street, the main road, the passage for ships, between the shallows ...". "Small passages, full of shoals, difficult to navigate; a shallow river ..." [unofficial translation] Is the village located near a convenient or inconvenient river route?
"... The passages of fish are blocked in the lakes when fishing with a seine." [unofficial translation] Is the settlement located in places where there is a huge passage of fish?
"Пуща, Forest, forest thickets, ... protected, forbidden, reserved forest, impenetrable, abundantly overgrown. "Проходняк, Walkway, Forest swamp, which they able to walk on, passable..." "Глухой сад, лес..., Deaf garden, forest, neglected and heavily overgrown; wild, barely passable." "- a forest, a passageway, without a swamp, drome, thickets, slums. - aspen, - oak, without admixture of other trees". [unofficial translation]
We got four main meanings:
Way, road,
River route (convenient or inconvenient),
Fish place,
Сlean (Pure) forest.
I have to turn to the encyclopedia.
It turns out that there are Velikiye Prokhody (Great Passages) and Malye Prokhody (Small Passages) (Kharkiv region). In both cases, there are large forests (oak) near the settlements.
In addition to these settlements, there are Prokhody (Passages):
Prokhody is a village in the Kamenets district of the Brest region.
Prokhody is a village in the Glubokoe district of the Vitebsk region.
Prokhody is a village in the Petrikovsky district of the Gomel region.
Prokhody is a village in the Borisovsky district of the Minsk region.
Prokhody is a village in the Logoisk district of the Minsk region.
Prokhody is a village in the Uzdensky district of the Minsk region.
Prokhody is a village in the Kuibyshevsky District of the Kaluga Region.
Prokhody is a village in the Mosalsky District of the Kaluga Region.
Prokhody is a village in the Spas-Demensky District of the Kaluga Region.
Prokhody is a village in the Lyubeshovsky district of the Volyn region.
Prokhody is a village in the Krasnopolsky district of the Sumy region. [unofficial translation]
Basically, these settlements were located on the former territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was famous for its excellent forests.
The meaning of "Сlean (Pure) Forest" comes out on top ("- a forest, a passageway, without a swamp, drome, thickets, slums. - aspen, - oak, without admixture of other trees").
For Velikiye Prokhody and Malye Prokhody, located on the banks of (or close to) the Prokhody River (a tributary of the Kharkiv River), "Fish place" is accepted as a possible option.
As for the roads left after the hypothetical Great Marches of huge masses of cavalry, they remain in reserve.
"The name of the village comes from the Slobozhan dialectism "passages", which means "hillocks", "yars", "yarugi", that is, hilly terrain." [unofficial translation] We are skeptical about the attempt to bring the Prokhody (Passages) out of the "interval" between the hills.
Translation from Russian into English: May 15, 2022 19:56.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский "Великие Проходы. Очерк географических и исторических ассоциаций".
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