Page 163 - Наукові записки Державного природознавчого музею, 2023 Вип. 39

160 Загороднюк І.В.

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.
Key words: mammals, zoonymics, taxonomic names, Ukrainian scientific terminology.