3 terms
Watermark (Filigree)
A watermark (filigree) is an image, letters, or sign in paper, visible against the light, formed during papermaking owing to the varying thickness of the paper layer. From the era of handmade paper production (from the 13th–14th centuries), each paper mill had its own watermarks — a kind of 'factory mark' (animals, coats of arms, letters, jugs, crescents, and so on). Since the designs of watermarks changed over time, filigrees are one of the most precise means of dating undated manuscripts and old prints: by comparing a watermark with dated specimens in filigranological reference works (the albums of Charles-Moïse Briquet, Nikolai Likhachov, and others), a scholar establishes the approximate time of the paper's manufacture and hence the earliest possible time of the text's writing. The discipline that studies watermarks is called filigranology. The filigrees of Ukrainian and European papers of the 16th–18th centuries are a valuable source for medieval studies, codicology, and the history of the book.
Wedding Song
The wedding song is a ritual song of the family cycle that accompanies every stage of the traditional Ukrainian wedding — matchmaking, betrothal, the korovai (ceremonial bread), the unbraiding of the maiden's plait, the departure to the crowning, and the posad. The Ukrainian wedding is a kind of folk drama with a distribution of 'roles' (the bride, groom, bridesmaids, boyars), and the wedding songs perform a dramaturgical function, commenting on the action and revealing the bride's feelings. Motifs of the girl's farewell to her home and maidenhood dominate, along with the symbolism of the kalyna (guelder rose), periwinkle, and korovai. A classic description of the Ukrainian wedding with its songs was given by Khvedir Vovk, and the texts were collected by Pavlo Chubynsky in his ethnographic 'Works' (1872–1878).
Winged word
A winged word is an apt, figurative phrase that has entered general use from a concrete literary, historical, mythological or folk source and has retained the link with its origin: "Sisyphean labour," "the sword of Damocles," "to be or not to be." Unlike anonymous phraseological units, a winged word has a known or at least reconstructed authorship or source. Such expressions concentrate a generalised thought, historical experience or artistic image and serve as a means of the terse, authoritative expression of an idea. In literature and journalism winged words enrich speech, establish a dialogue with cultural tradition, reinforce persuasiveness. The study of winged words belongs to phraseology, paremiology and cultural linguistics, which investigate the interaction of language and culture.
