Nekotorye nabljudenija nad slovoobrazovaniem i semantikoj staroslavjanskogo Srъdobolja

Some Observations on the Word-formation and the Semantics of Old Church Slavonic Srъdobolja
This paper aims to complement, define and analyse the semantics, word-formation and original meaning of the Old Slavonic compound srъdobolja by tracing its earliest attestations in sources related to Preslav Literary School and to the second, Tsar-Symeon's redaction of the Old Bulgarian liturgical books. It refers to the data from the 10th-century Synkel epigraph, recently discovered in Preslav. The presence of such models of compounds in Old Slavonic texts is discussed as an argument in favour of the Slavic origin of the lexeme. By means of a comparative study of the parallel historical semantic development of the word in Old Serbian and Old Russian literary sources, the assertion (expressed in ESJS) that srъdobolja is a native Slavonic word – i.e., formed from a Proto-Slavic root *sьrd- and a second deverbal component of bolěti, perfectly coherent with the models of compounds such as drěvodělja, zemledělja and the like, is defended. The conclusion confirms that the original meaning was related to the collective forms ‘blood relatives, family members, relatives; consanguine, cognate, familiar; Sippe, die Verwandten’ and not to the honorable title of a courtier or of an office holder (palace minister) in the hierarchy of the First Bulgarian Kingdom.