товарищ

See also: товариш

Russian

Alternative forms

това́рищъ (továrišč) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)
тов. (tov.), т. (t.) — abbreviations

Etymology

Inherited from Old East Slavic товарищь (tovariščĭ), from Proto-Slavic *tovariščь, from *tovarъ +‎ *-iščь.

Ultimately an early borrowing of Turkic origin, from Old Turkic tavar (“property, goods, trade, wealth”) + ishchi (“one who works”), from ish (“business, work”), from Proto-Turkic *īĺč (“work”) (or, possibly instead -iš (“friend”)).^[1]^[2] See modern Turkish işçi (“worker”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [tɐˈvarʲɪɕː]
Audio: (file)

Noun

това́рищ • (továrišč) m anim (genitive това́рища, nominative plural това́рищи, genitive plural това́рищей, feminine това́рка, relational adjective това́рищеский)

comrade, friend (male or female)
mate, companion, pal (male or female)
colleague, assistant (male or female)
classmate, fellow student (male or female)
a word used to address compatriots, fellow citizens (male or female) in the Soviet era

Declension

Declension of това́рищ (anim masc-form sibilant-stem accent-a)

	singular	plural
nominative	това́рищ továrišč	това́рищи továrišči
genitive	това́рища továrišča	това́рищей továriščej
dative	това́рищу továrišču	това́рищам továriščam
accusative	това́рища továrišča	това́рищей továriščej
instrumental	това́рищем továriščem	това́рищами továriščami
prepositional	това́рище továrišče	това́рищах továriščax

Derived terms

по-това́рищески (po-továriščeski)
сотова́рищ m anim (sotovárišč)
това́рищеский (továriščeskij)
това́рищество n (továriščestvo)
това́рка f anim (továrka)
гусь свинье́ не това́рищ (gusʹ svinʹjé ne továrišč)
тва́рищ (tvárišč) (humorous, slang)

Related terms

това́р m (továr)

Descendants

→ Chinese:
Mandarin: 達瓦里希 (dáwǎlǐxī)
→ English: tovarish
→ Finnish: toveri
→ Ingrian: tovarišša
→ Yakut: табаарыс (tabaarıs)
→ Persian: تاواریش (tâvâriš)

References

^ Rusistika: The Russian Journal of the Association for Language Learning, vol. 11-14. The Association, 1995. page 17.
^ “tovarish”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “товарищ”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
Chernykh, P. Ja. (1993) “товарищ”, in Историко-этимологический словарь русского языка (in Russian), 3rd edition, volume 2 (панцирь – ящур), Moscow: Russian Lang., →ISBN, page 247

[1] Rusistika: The Russian Journal of the Association for Language Learning, vol. 11-14. The Association, 1995. page 17.

[2] “tovarish”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

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