Mat is the term for vulgar, obscene, or profane language in Russian and some other Slavic language communities. The term mat derives from the Russian word for mother, a component of the key phrase "Ёб твою мать", "yob tvoyu mat.
Four pillars of mat
In 2014, Roskomnadzor compiled a list of four words of the Russian language for Russia, which, in their opinion, are "absolutely unacceptable in the mass media": khuy ; pizda ; yebat ; and blyad. David Remnick believes that mat has thousands of variations but ultimately centers on those four words. All mat-words were included by the publisher Jan Baudouin de Courtenay in the 3rd and 4th editions of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, which was printed 4 times in 1903–1909 and in 1911–1912, 1912–1914. The inclusion of rude and abusive words became an obstacle to the reprinting of this version of the dictionary in the Soviet Union for censorship reasons.
Khuy
Khuy means cock, penis, or for an equivalent colloquial register: dick. The etymology of the term is unclear. Mainstream theories include from Proto-Indo European *ks-u-, related to хвоя, attributed to Pederson, 1908; from PIE *hau-, related to хвост, attributed to Merlingen, 1955; from Mongolian хуй. This was the etymology endorsed by the Soviet government and attributed to Maxim Gorky, who claimed it was a loan word, imposed during the Mongol yoke. Alexander Gorokhovski suggests the derivation from the Latinhuic as a euphemism, because the old Russian "ud/uda" became taboo in the mid-18th century. Currently, the first volume of the Great Dictionary of Mat by the Russian linguist and folklorist Alexei Plutser-Sarno treats only expressions with the stem хуй, numbering over 500 entries; 12 volumes are planned. Another theory is that it originates from the Greek word huios which means son. The word khuy also appears in various other Slavic languages with the same meaning and pronunciation but not always the same spelling, such as the Polishchuj.
Yebát means "to fuck", "to copulate", "to have intercourse".
Blyád'
Blyád' means whore. In the Old East Slavicthe word блѧдь – blyad, meaning: "deception, nonsense, insane, adulteress", is preserved in the Church Slavonic in three meanings: "deception, delusion", "idle talk, trivia" and "debauchery, adultery". Often combined with the term "suka" to form "suka blyád" especially among Internet users and memes.
History and use
Obscenities are among the earliest recorded attestations of the Russian language. Mikhail Lermontov's 1834 "A Holiday in Peterhof" is one example of the usage of mat. The prologue to Luka Mudishchev, probably written at some time in the mid 19th century, was often ascribed to Ivan Barkov, an obscene poet who lived in the 18th century: Mat is also used in humor or puns by juxtaposing innocent words so that the result will sound as if an obscene word was used. An example is a Cossack song cited in And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov:
Here "Уху я варила" may be reinterpreted as "У хуя варила" or even "Ух, хуй я варила". The contemporaneous use of mat is widespread, especially in the army, police, blue-collar workers, the criminal world, and many other all-male milieus. An article by Victor Erofeyev analyzing the history, overtones, and sociology of mat appeared in the 15September 2003 issue of The New Yorker.
Legal issues
, mat has been banned in Russia from all movies, theatrical productions, and concerts. In modern Russia, the use of mat is censored in the media and the use of mat in public constitutes petty hooliganism, a form of disorderly conduct, punishable under article 20.1.1 of the Offences Code of Russia, although there is no clear legal definition what exactly constitutes "mat". Despite the public ban, mat is used by Russians of all ages and nearly all social groups, with particular fervor in the male-dominated military and the structurally similar social strata.
