The Russian mytar ("tax collector"): on the development of the semantics of the word and its system relations in various forms of the language existence

The article focuses on the semantics of the word mytar ("tax collector in Ancient Judea, tollman in Ancient Rus") and its semantic and word formation derivatives. The history of the word semantics is traced in the Russian literary language, which inherited it from Old Church Slavic. Based on a contextual analysis of the lexeme mytar, the author reveals its latest meaning "tax officer", which is almost devoid of negative connotations and does not occur in modern lexicographic sources. A variety of meanings of the words with the stem mytar- developed in Russian regional dialects are considered. An attempt to identify the logic of semantic development inside the word family is made. Formal and semantic relationships of words having the stem mytar- with other lexemes in Russian dialects, in particular with derivatives of the roots mot-, mwt-, myt- and derivatives of the word myto ("toll"), are found out. The conclusion is made about the formation of the morphological and semantic field within which it is difficult to establish the origin of a particular linguistic unit from a particular root.