I wonder this when I studied Russian and saw all the French/German loanwords. "Did the Russians not use to have screens/beaches/furniture before the Enlightenment?"
> Did the Russians not use to have screens/beaches/furniture before the Enlightenment?
I don't know the evolution of the terms in question, but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't!
Like, what is a beach (or пляж)? It's basically берег (riverbank/seashore) but intended for recreation use. Did people of the past have enough time to recreationally use their seashores/riverbanks? I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.
Same about furniture/мебель. I would assume that in the past (at least in the villages), people would often have benches, beds, tables custom-made specifically for their house, and they would not be meant to be moved out.
Мебель/furniture presupposes that people produce it in one place, and then people move it to their house, and this was often not the case in the past.
If your bed is made when your house is built, and cannot be moved out because bed frame goes directly into your wall, is that still furniture? Is furniture a useful word to describe that?
