Levada … This melodic word has long misled the minds of Russian writers. After all, once they got used to one of its lexical forms, it immediately, as if by order of a magic wand, turned into a completely different concept. Over and over again, the meaning of the word "levada" eluded their inquiring mind, teasing with its inconstancy.
Years passed, it would seem, now Russian dictionaries should have put everything in its place. But once you look into them, and the same hour a thousand questions arise in your head. And therefore, let's finally correct this misunderstanding and put in place all the interpretations of this word.
Through the prism of history
Many scholars are inclined to believe that initially this word denoted a certain type of terrain. So, according to one ancient manuscript, levada is a part of a private plot left under haymaking. In the old days, almost every inhabitant of the village had such patches of land, since otherwise it would be very difficult to feed the household.
Over the years, this word has spread throughout the entire South European part of Russia. True, now they call not only haymaking, but also any piece of land that was next to the house. And it doesn’t matter whether the grass, bushes or even forest trees grow there.
Word transformation near the border with Ukraine
For Ukrainians, levada is a part of the deciduous forest, which is located next to a certain reservoir. At the same time, its borders are determined by the spill, and to be more precise, its end points.
It is curious that in some border regions of Russia this interpretation of the word is used in oral speech even today. For example, a sentence: “Yesterday, the land finally completely dried out after the spill. Therefore, today our team of lumberjacks began cleaning levada. For the most part, poplars were sanitized, but the alder had to be completely removed. ”
