About the unusual name “drone” in the Udmurt language of the 18th century

The relevance of the proposed topic is due to the insufficient identification and description of the vocabulary of fauna, as one of the most archaic layers in the vocabulary of almost all FinnoUgric languages. The purpose of this study is to trace the history of the written fixation of the word var-bozgo ‘drone’ in the Udmurt language, starting from its first appearance in the earliest written monuments of the 18th century and ending with the main lexicographic works of the modern period, to consider the lexical-semantic formation of a complex name and determine by possibilities of its etymology. Achieving this goal seems possible by solving problems related to identifying and describing this entomological term in comparison with data from other related and unrelated languages. The research material is handwritten and published written monuments of the 18th-19th centuries, the most important lexicographic works on the Udmurt language of the modern period, as well as possible parallels of these words from contacting related and unrelated languages. The descriptive method is mainly used, as well as some elements of semantic and comparative etymological analysis. The name var-bozgo ‘drone’ is unique - it has no typological parallels, it is recorded only in one written source - the handwritten grammar of M. Myshkin, compiled in the second half of the 18th century. To develop the question, further fixation of individual components of this complex word in the Udmurt language, which function with high and low frequency, is provided. As a result of the study, an expansion of the lexical and semantic content of the word bozgo was discovered during the development of the language. Etymological analysis made it possible to identify the origin of the constituent elements of the entomological term: var ‘servant, slave’ has parallels in many Finno-Permian languages and is an original Udmurt word of the Finno-Permian period of development of the base language; and the origin of the component bozgo ‘zhuk; dung beetle’ is associated with the expressive-figurative word boz ( boz-boz ), expressing the sound image of a buzzing or low voice, to which the unproductive nominal formant -go was added during the period of independent formation of the Udmurt language.