Expert: Natasha Kozyreva - 4/8/2009

Question
Dear Natasha,

Please, what is the exact meaning of по in посередина (in the middle)? Can you give me other examples of по used in the same sense?

All the best, and many thanks,

Simon

Answer
Hello Simon,

Unfortunately, there is no such word in the dictionary of etymology available to me, so I can only make a guess.

As you know, посередине, which doesn't inflect, means "in the middle" - в(на) середине. Therefore I think the part по- should be the substitute of "в/на" and is probably derived from the preposition по ("on the surface of" etc.: по полю, по морю, по линии). However, the word has been around for centuries and it is difficult to say for sure what the meaning of the по- was/is and give other examples.

If you'd like to learn more about what по- can potentially mean, you should perhaps read about morphology and prefixes in particular. There is some information here: http://rus-lang.com/about/group/gorbunova/state8/ (only for adjectives) and here (only for verbs): http://www.google.ru/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesis.jyu...

Best regards,
Natasha