Shvybzik: Where did it come from?

[blessOTMA]

Thank you Sarah...you are vastly more organized than myself. That has a nice portrait of Olga and "Dear Well"  ( Dr.Botkin) sitting together along with Trina ...and I wonder if the farther most officer on the right is Paul? At least one person is moving to help AN...but the rest of her victems seem to be enjoying the moment when the joke is squarely on the tiny terror lol !

[Sarushka]

...and I wonder if the farther most officer on the right is Paul?

Yes, that's Voronov.

[Sunny]

If i were AN, once on my fett again i'd punch those silly sister who didn't help me... LOL

[blessOTMA]

If i were AN, once on my fett again i'd punch those silly sister who didn't help me... LOL

She's at TN's feet and TN isn't moving a muscle LOL ! Anastasia being so little , they could always best her physically. But she found  another way to compete ..... her humor and her fearlessness.

[Olga Bernice]

If i were AN, once on my fett again i'd punch those silly sister who didn't help me... LOL

I don't know . . . perhaps play a prank on Tatiana. Hmm - anybody see a snake around? 

[historyfan]

If i were AN, once on my fett again i'd punch those silly sister who didn't help me... LOL

I don't know . . . perhaps play a prank on Tatiana. Hmm - anybody see a snake around? 

Didn't TN take a snowball in the face courtesy of AN at some point?  "Revenge is a dish best served cold" - in more ways than one - perhaps?  ; )  Pure speculation on my part!  LOL

That photo is adorable.  : )

[Olga Bernice]

Oh yeah, historyfan, I ahd forgotton that! Hmm . . . maybe I don't blame Tatiana for not helping her! 

[Sarushka]

According to pg 121 of Resurrection of the Romanovs, "...that summer of 1925, the claimant [Anna Anderson] casually mentioned the word 'Schwibes,' a variant of 'Schwibzik,' the nickname bestowed on Anastasia by her aunt Olga Alexandrovna."

King and Wilson list their source for this information as Anastasia: The Survivor of Ekaterinburg, by Harriet von Rathlef-Keilmann.

I don't own a copy of Rathlef-Keilmann's book, so I can't cross-check the reference.

[Lady Macduff]

I'm not so sure about the "tipsy" reference being born when that photo was taken. If Sarushka's right (and I think she is) "shvybzik" originated with Olga A, and she isn't there. I suppose she could have heard about it, or been outside the frame of the picture. More likely, I think, in reference to another char falling incident.

Slightly off topic, but I always thought the nickname came from Nicholas. Interesting there are no written instances of his using it.

[Inok Nikolai]

FYI:

Paul Gilbert’s Royal Russia, Vol. 8, p. 130, has the following footnote to the article by Irene Galaktionova on the Imperial family’s pets:

“Shvybzik (also shvybzdik, shibzdik) — a colloquial Russian word used to humorously describe a puny man or a small child. First recorded in the 19th century in some of the North Western Russian peasant dialects, the word became very popular in the urban Russian culture of the early 20th century.”

***********

I am not contradicting the above information or questioning the fact, but I would like to hear from other native Russians on this etymology.

Dahl's four-volume dictionary does not have such an entry, nor could I find a cross-reference on line.

Anyone?

[Превед]

I would also be interested in hearing an (unlikely) North Russian dialect etymology. I think the following is more likely, etymology-wise:

- From German beschwipst, tipsy.
- From Danish vips or German Wips, exclamation in connection with a swift movement. (Same etymology as English wipe, swipe and sweep, I suppose.)
- From Danish svippe, to stretch out, scuttle back or forth or take a short trip.
- From Danish få (get) svip, get mad (in both senses of the word), loose one's mind / temper.

See http://ordnet.dk/ddo_en?set_language=en

Danish and Norwegian are very close and most of these words and meanings also exist in Norwegian, although not in all Norwegian dialects. There was some contact between Norwegian and North Russian dialects in the Arctic. (Resulting in the pidgin Russenorsk.)

[Превед]

Or what about an etymology from the brand name Schweppes and their carbonated, sparkling (tonic) water, to denote Anastasia's bubbly, sparkling personality? The company is old (founded by a Hessian in the 18th century) and was purveyor to the British court as early as the 1830s and might therefore have been well-known to Queen Victoria's large kin.

That would explain the /sh/ sound, though not the /i/ instead of /e/, based on the common English pronunciation.