«Ssavtsi» (Mammalia): the story of a 100-year-old term

Abstract

The use of the Ukrainian word «ssavtsi» (= «suctorial») and its synonym «zviri» (= «beasts») to designate the class Mammalia is considered. It is shown that the word «zviri» is traditional, but over time the share of publications with the term «ssavtsi» increases, an in general there are twice as many of them. The similar meaning of these terms is conditional, and the author adheres to the usage of «ssavtsi» for the class Mammalia and «zviri» for the subclass Theria (= «placental»). The analysis of previous literature sources showed that the term «ssavtsi» appeared in scientific circulation only in 1910, in the textbook «Zoology» by I. Verkhratsky, and precisely as a plural noun with an iotized «i» («ssavtsї»). The author explains the latter as underlining the emphasis of the syllable, in contrast to predecessor terms, which were participles. This format was later changed to an iotless «i» with the appearance of writing the nomen in singular («ssavets»). There is a number of words based on the verb «ssaty» (= «to suck»), in particular «ssushchi», «ssachi», and «ssawchi in the prehistory of the appearance of the term «ssavtsi». The latter variant is not found in Ukrainian-language sources, but it was coined in the Polish language by M. Novytsky, a native of Galicia and Podolia, who after defending his thesis (in Lviv in 1863) became a professor at the Jagiellonian University, where he published a series of textbooks changing the meaning of «ssące» («zwierzęta ssące») and the noun «ssąwce» (the modern form is «ssaki»). An analogous term was present in the Czech language («ssawci» modernised as «savci»), from which textbooks were translated by activists of the Ruthenian movements. Thanks to the educational activities of the Ukrainian Scientific Society (USS), it was included in textbooks and reference books (written by I. Rakovsky, M. Charlemagne, and I. Verkhratsky in 1919–1922). One of its first popularisers was V. Hnatiuk, the compiler of the ethnographic collection «Animal Epic» (1916), who listed the articles according to systematics and used the nomen «Ssavtsi» (Mammals) for the title of the section. The further distribution of this term can also be explained by the fact that the monosyllabic form has become fixed in all the neighbouring languages: Czech «savci», Polish «ssaki», Slovak «cicavce» and others. To some extent, it was also the answer to the Latin composite name Mammalia (mamma = «mammary gland», -alia = «the one possesses»), and the suffix «-ets» in Ukrainian is a completely corresponding formant.