The song from the movie “The Diamond Arm”, praising the hares that mow the grass, has become truly popular. Indeed, in the vastness of Russia there are practically no people who do not know it by heart. However, there are also practically no people who could clearly answer the question: “Tryn grass - what is it?”
Background
Anyone can formulate what is meant in the winged expression: tryn-grass - anyway, Russian maybe. Maybe that's why the song found such a hot response in Soviet hearts. In fact - a favorite tactic: methodically mow vegetation and not think about the horrors of this cruel world. Everything somehow resolves by itself. By the way, the expression "tryn-grass" is reflected in folk art and other works. For example, a much less famous, but perhaps a deeper and more tragic film by Sergei Nikonenko. The plot is based on a conflict between a working but mundane Stepan and his romantically-minded wife Lydia. As usual, the hero-lover Vadim appears on the horizon, who inclines Lydia to another life. It will not be a surprise to anyone that Stepan will win in an unequal struggle - he is not trying to comprehend the incomprehensible, but with a calm soul he is doing his job, so he is the master of the situation. Great Russian "tryn-grass." Just why grass? And where did the “tryn” come from? The most curious must have turned to various information sources. And they did not find a definite answer. And Ushakov's explanatory dictionary gives the following definition: tryn-grass - something that is not worthy of attention, empty.
Where did the name come from
According to the biological classification, plants with the name "tryn" or "tryn-grass" do not exist. There was also no evidence that such a nickname was assigned to any plant at the level of colloquial speech. It remains to search for the etymological origin. First of all, we will try to choose phonetic associations: tryn - tyn, drin.
- Tyn - in the old days the name of the fence. If you combine these concepts together, you get grass growing at the fence, that is, weed.
- Drin is a stick, usually used in the context of weapons. That is, a certain part of the plant that has a very dense, almost woody stem. You can’t give up on such a hand - you need to fight it right away, so this option seems unlikely.
- In the Russian language there are also consonant verbs, for example, “tryndet” - to speak empty, useless to chat. The meaning is almost the same as that specified in the explanatory dictionary.
- In the Old Russian version, the word “rubbing” was also used - which means “rubbing”, thus, in one of the variants “rubbing grass” - this is trash, that which remains from the grated grass; in a word, trash, a useless thing.
Let us turn to the sources: the concept of “tryn grass” has been used in the Russian language since ancient times. Nevertheless, the root words associated with this name have not been preserved in our literature. Maybe it came from somewhere outside?
What will the foreigners tell us
Drawing parallels with other languages, you can find several suitable analogies.
- Sanskrit (for the uninitiated - the ancient Indian language) - the word "trna" means "grass". That is, the concept of “tryn grass” is obtained - this is a linguistic bridge between two, by the way, related languages. One and the same thing in two dialects: that is trin, that grass is all the same. Again we went out onto the familiar path.
- The language of the Etruscans gives us the word “trine” in the same way as in the previous case - grass. Comments are redundant.
- The Bulgarian language offers a practically similar word: “tintrava” - weed. Although the Russian and Bulgarian languages are so close, it’s hard to reliably say who borrowed a word from someone.
