Talking about the weather

In such heat, what else is there to talk about if not the heat. So I’m talking about the same thing - in the sense, about the word “heat”, as well as about other words on this topic - heat , for example: In July there is terrible heat here; By noon the heat became unbearable. How to define heat - a natural language word? Of course, not in degrees. This is such a high ambient temperature that it is difficult for humans and animals to tolerate. In contrast to the words warm and warm, which indicate an air temperature high enough to make a person feel comfortable. (Remember, from Galich: “And in the Crimea it’s warm, there are herring in the sea, / And almonds, I suppose, have arrived in time?”) cool are arranged in the same way The pair cold and . Coolness is pleasant to a person, but cold is hard. And it is impossible to indicate the limit in degrees. This, by the way, is a good illustration of what is called the anthropocentricity of language: the meaning of many words, even, at first glance, not related to people, can only be determined in relation to a person.

But let's get back to the heat and heat. The word heat has a broader meaning. The most common source of heat is the sun. But you can talk about heat even when the sun is not shining: Even at night the heat does not subside (note that the word heat is impossible here). When it's hot, the weather can be different: dry or humid, windy, stuffy - when it's hot, as we'll see, this is not the case. The word heat does not necessarily describe the state of nature at a particular moment; it can also characterize the weather over a period of time (like now).

Heat in general can refer to more than just the weather. The source of heat can be artificial heat coming from a fireplace, stove, radiator, etc.; here again Galich: “And then I will lie down on the table, on that solemn table, / And I will put a paper rose in my bared mouth, / And under someone’s parting cry, in the smoke and in the heat, / I will float, flow, drown in pig jelly.” (“New Year’s phantasmagoria”). Such uses of the word heat are not typical in modern Russian. Here is a clearly outdated Pushkin example: “He raised the miraculous icons, and despite the unbearable heat of the fire and the falling logs, he walked around the inside of the fortress while singing prayers.”

The idea of ​​heat can be quite subjective. A person may say “Ugh, it’s hot today!” when in reality the weather is not hot, say +10, but the temperature has risen unexpectedly, especially if he is not dressed for the weather. The word heat is used only to describe the state of nature, and only when the air temperature is really very high (in Europe this usually happens only in the summer) and the sun is shining brightly. Heat is a combination of intense heat and scorching sun rays.

Another feature of the word heat is that it does not simply indicate the heat of the sun, but also implies a certain state of all nature. When it's hot, the air is dry and usually still. This is a very picturesque word. The idea of ​​heat includes a haze - a visually perceived trembling of the air, as well as the sky - either bright blue, or, on the contrary, as if faded, in a haze: “The faces of the convoy are changing, / The sixth prosecutor has a heart attack ... / And somewhere it’s getting dark from heat / Huge July expanse” (A. Akhmatova, “Others take away their loved ones”). Most often, heat is spoken of not in relation to an urban landscape, but to a rural or other natural landscape, to open spaces, either green or scorched by the sun. Wed. “And flowers, and bumblebees, and grass, and ears of corn, / And azure, and the midday heat” (I. Bunin, “And flowers, and bumblebees...”); “And above her, in the sky, pale from the heat, swan solemn clouds glowed as they floated by” (K. Paustovsky, “Ilyinsky Whirlpool”).

In addition to heat and heat , Russian also has the expressive zharishcha and the somewhat colloquial zharyn. Like A. Chekhov: “And it must be that in this very Africa now the heat is a terrible thing!” ("Uncle Ivan").

There is also a wonderful word in the Russian language : “Let’s go to the beach early tomorrow, otherwise by eleven it will be a terrible heat.” In modern language it is practically no longer used in its direct meaning - hell. The figurative meaning (intense heat) was established partly due to the consonance: heat-oven. Remember, Plyushkin says: “Wait a minute: at the Last Judgment the devils will beat you up with iron slingshots for this! Look how they cook!” Many even think that hell comes from the oven. In fact, this is not so: our inferno is related to the Latin pikh - resin.

The word heat is in many ways close in meaning to the pretty word sunshine. Only it does not mean the highest temperature itself, but an open place where it is very warm from the sun. “And the sea near the town splashed quiet, muddy green, gentle, like a cat dozing off in the sun” (Yu. Dombrovsky “Faculty of Unnecessary Things”). However, the sun does not necessarily imply a very high air temperature; it is also possible on a cool spring day, when the sun seems warm in contrast to the shadow.

Previously, the word heat could be used to describe high temperatures in nature . Everyone remembers Lermontov’s: “In the midday heat, in the valley of Dagestan / With lead in my chest, I lay motionless” (“Dream”). Or here’s another: “The sun was already setting over Bald Mountain, but the heat was still unbearable, and the soldiers in both cordons suffered from it” (M. Bulgakov, “The Master and Margarita”); “Once he came running home at the wrong time: in the heat of midday, when those lemon birds that are called sunny birds scurry through the forests like golden arrows” (I. Bunin, “Brothers”). Now the word heat, among other things, can indicate the hot substance itself, which is spread by hot objects: heat comes from the stove or, what is more relevant, from the asphalt that has heated up during the day . But the midday heat is getting old. Therefore, in the lines of the same Lermontov, “The summer heat / Covered with shadow / golden / Her face and chest; and the heat / Breathed from her lips and cheeks,” the modern reader will see the plural form from exclusively the word heat, but not heat.

Why am I telling all this? Yes, so - remember Rozanov’s answer to the question “What to do?”? “What to do: if it’s summer, peel the berries and make jam; if it’s winter, drink tea with this jam.” Or you can do this: in the thick of it, think about the origin of the word hell. And if it’s a cold winter, let’s talk about cold and frost. Are you aware, for example, that shame is related to cold?