The etimology of the words kletva (bane) and psovka (curse)

Abstract

Making his departure from the doubtful etymology of the words klelva and psovka, the author reveals them both to be speech acts of verbal aggression (whose content base is imprecation) common both to linguistics and magic. Moreover, the basic terminology of magic corresponds with that of linguistics because both are founded on words: magic on the power of words, while linguistics on the essence of words. The parallelism between magic and linguistics holds in regards to the written us well as to the spoken word. Therefore, it is not surprisint that certain glottogonic theories take magic as the origin of language and of the letter (the same thing has been shown to be true of poetry). In addition, it should not astonish that the ancient, essentially sympathetic, therefore magic, idea of an analogy between words and things is still alive in the contemporary world.