3 ms·
It's Russian ‘расписывать’, specifically ‘расписывать ручку’. Vaguely translated as ‘make-write the pen’, and derived from ‘писать’—‘to write’. Notably, I don't
by aasasd 6y ago
It's Russian ‘расписывать’, specifically ‘расписывать ручку’. Vaguely translated as ‘make-write the pen’, and derived from ‘писать’—‘to write’. Notably, I don't think any other instrument needed that action, so the word is only used with pens.
The word has another meaning of decorating something with paint. But despite the identical constituent parts, the underlying etymology is slightly different, as far as I understand: ‘make-write’ is closer in meaning to the similar ‘расписываться’—either ‘to sign’ or ‘while writing a text, get in the flow of writing’.
This inflectional derivation is pretty much identical to how English has hundreds of compound words where simple verbs are smacked together with adverbs, e.g. ‘put on’, ‘put up’ and such—most of them with entirely idiomatic meanings.
- mssundaram 6y agoThanks very much for explaining!