Revisiting the Etymology of the Quasi-Ethnonym Hinova

Abstract

The article examines the problem of meaning and etymology of Old Russian хинова. It is a well-known hapax from The Tale of Igor’s Campaign, which appears thrice in the text and has an unclear meaning. It was considered to be an ethnonym (both, referentially and etymologically). Since the 19th century, numerous interpretations have been proposed; the most plausible of them (хинова refers to the Huns, Hungarians or Cumans) are critically reviewed in this article. The authors are inclined to consider хинова not an ethnonym, but rather an appellative that does not name a peculiar nation, but is a characteristic of aliens and enemies in general. This allows to connect хинова with a vast lexical group in Russian dialects with the stem хин- < Proto-Slavic *xyniti ‘to deceive’ < *xybati ‘to swing; to make mistake’. Thus, Old Russian *хынъ could mean ‘cunning, deceiver’ and its derivate (Nom. Pl.) хынове — ‘deceivers; wicked’ (Russ. нечестивые, lit. ‘without honor’) and this fits into the a well-known model of naming the aliens. The authors suppose that хинова is used in the Tale in two related meanings: the wide one (‘wicked; infidel’ peoples — about the enemies in general) and the narrow one (the Cumans as a representatives of the wicked peoples). In addition, the article suggests an interesting Iranian parallel: Ossetian xīn ‘insidious; cunning; witchcraft’ < Iran. *hinya ‘witchkraft; spell-binding’ < *hā(y) ‘to bind’. The authors do not rule out a possibility that the Alanic word may have influenced the use of Old Russian *хын- in the Tale: xīn may have been used by the Alans to refer to the Cumans, a fact known to the author of the Tale, who therefore used the Old Russian word similar by meaning and by sound. This could, besides, explain why хинова in the Tale was a hapax.

DOI: 10.31168/2305-6754.2026.1.01