Тунеядец

Тунеядец (pronounced too-nee-YA-dets, meaning "bum," "sponger") - that sounds good in the current recession, doesn't it? It's so obviously intentional. The тунеядец hasn't lost his job. He never bothered to get one. I remember a Los Angeles Times journalist once describing the kind of people you see out and about in the middle of a sunny day "looking like work was never invented." That's the тунеядец. Although freelancers sometimes get mistaken for тунеядцы, we won't worry about that.

The word has a great sound. It doesn't really roll off your tongue - it kind of pops out of your mouth and offends someone before you can stop it. But where does it come from? What are its roots?

A friend and I were discussing this very point at the Molodaya Gvardiya bookstore, so I nabbed a two-volume etymological dictionary (Историко-этимологический словарь современного русского языка, Черных, П.Я., Медиа, 2007) and we headed to the checkout. Once I got the plastic wrap off the set I discovered that there was no entry for тунеядец. Oh, it had туннель (tunnel) and турист (tourist) - WTF? - but no тунеядец.

Later that evening I was having tea with another linguist friend who quickly thought through the question and laid it out for me.

The first part of the word, туне-, comes from втуне, which means "in vain," "to no good purpose." The second part, -ядец, means "one who eats."

So a тунеядец is a person who eats to no good purpose. Hangs out in the kitchen but doesn't buy groceries.

I have so many questions milling around without answers that I get really excited when I do find an answer.

The dictionary? Relegated to bathroom reading.