Timofeev. Do you drink vodka? John. Oh, woe is me!.. Aniseed. Timofeev. I don't have any aniseed. M. Bulgakov. Ivan Vasilyevich Recently, erofeich has appeared in a number of words that have already seemingly fallen out of use and survived their "second birth". Now so called numerous wine shops, and in general this name is a household name, and it means vodka infused with fragrant herbs. It entered the literary language at the beginning of the XIX century and was actively used throughout the century. After the revolution of 1917, it was forgotten, it would seem, forever and now it returns to colloquial speech, although mostly as a proper name. Most etymologists adhere to the version about the origin of this word from the proper name. The name of a strong alcoholic drink is associated with the wine merchant Vasily Yerofeyich, who lived at the beginning of the XIX century, or with the barber or surgeon of Count Alexey Orlov, who supposedly cured his master around 1768 (Preobrazhensky A. G. Etymological Dictionary of the Russian language. Moscow, 1959. Vol. 1.; Fasmer M. Etymological Dictionary of the Russian language, Moscow, 1986, vol. II). However, along with yerofeyich, lexicologists also note yerofey with the same meaning: page 103 Goodbye, ringing glasses, And punch, and powerful yerofey! A. I. Polezhaev. Sasha (Somov V. P. Dictionary of rare and forgotten words , Moscow, 1996). Most likely, the word erofeich originated from the noun erofey, as well as the verb erofeinichat cited by V. I. Dahl. "get drunk" (Dal V. I. Tolkovyi slovar zhivogo velikorusskogo yazyka [Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language], Moscow, 1994, vol. I). In turn, the meaning of "vodka infused with various odorous herbs" developed on the basis of the primary meaning of the word yerofey-the herb hypericum porforatum, which is one of the components of this strong drink. A. Preobrazhensky does not explain the origin of the name of this herb, but here we clearly observe the t ... Read more