# All Slavic languages: Peace, svet, mir



## Krossaffschcheg

+ in russian "svet" also means "light" 
[свет] = light = world
world = [мир]
[мир] = peace
That trouble because after 1917 year from russian alphabeth dropped letter "i".
)

before 1917 [мир] = "peace", but [мiр] = "world"   => Tolstoy's "War and Peace" translated wrong. Rightly is "War and World" =))


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## Suane

Krossaffschcheg said:
			
		

> + in russian "svet" also means "light"
> [свет] = light = world
> world = [мир]
> [мир] = peace
> That trouble because after 1917 year from russian alphabeth dropped letter "i".
> )
> 
> before 1917 [мир] = "peace", but [мiр] = "world" => Tolstoy's "War and Peace" translated wrong. Rightly is "War and World" =))


 
That's interesting! I didn't know about that. But (as I read), Tolstoy himself translated the title into French as "La guerre et la paix" ("War and Peace"). 
So does the Mir-Soviet space station means peace or world?
Btw, in Slovak svetlo=light, svet=world, mier=peace.


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## Krossaffschcheg

Tolstoy jokes 
space stantion MIR means "yo, peace, man"... or "Hello World", like this.


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## Esc

This story is not true. There was a misprinting on one of "War and Peace" tome covers which has started the fake legend of "true name of Tolstoy's book" through "Chto? Gde? Kogda?" TV show.


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## Thomas1

In Polish:

świat – world
światło – light
pokój = peace = room


Is there any difference between Russian [мир] and [свет], please?


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## Esc

Thomas1 said:
			
		

> Is there any difference between Russian [мир] and [свет], please?


There is almost none. When you talk about the world as a place where we all live, it can be both *свет* or *мир*. But you'll never hear the word *свет *on the news channel.It's kinda unofficial and unscientific and somewhat old-fashioned.


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## Krossaffschcheg

Esc said:
			
		

> This story is not true. There was a misprinting on one of "War and Peace" tome covers which has started the fake legend of "true name of Tolstoy's book" through "Chto? Gde? Kogda?" TV show.


Of course


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## Krossaffschcheg

Esc said:
			
		

> There is almost none. When you talk about the world as a place where we all live, it can be both *свет* or *мир*. But you'll never hear the word *свет *on the news channel.It's kinda unofficial and unscientific and somewhat old-fashioned.


Yes. that world-word too old. In fact thats romantic/ironic... Don't use it while you no russian/ussr  Say to Russian "я прибыл с того света" and see reaction - it may be very different, i think.

---
sorry my english


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## Esc

Krossaffschcheg said:
			
		

> Say to Russian "я прибыл с того света" and see reaction - it may be very different, i think.


 
Hahaha! This is true. *Свет* can be divided to *этот свет* (this world) and *тот свет* (that world), latter being the afterlife world. But you can't do it with *мир*. As I said, it's always material. It can be another planet or parallel universe but not afterlife.


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## Juri

In Slovenian world is SVET
Peace is MIR
Universe is vseMIRje. IN Croatian: sveMIR


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## werrr

In Czech:

svět=world
světlo=light
svit=shine

mír=peace
vesmír (rarely všehomír)=cosmos, universe

pokoj=room, repose


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## Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!

werrr said:
			
		

> vesmír (rarely všehomír)=cosmos, universe



A bit of trivia, since we're on the subject - Všehomír is not a word. Rather, "všehomíra" is an archaic genitive of "vesmír".  Since it's a contraction of "ves mír" (meaning "all the world"; loaned from Russian, of course), the individual parts were declined separately. I.e. vesmír, všehomíra, všemumíru etc.


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## gumish

There is also a word _mir _in Polish, but to my knowlegde this means respect, good opinion. It is however quite rare literary word and could well be treated as an archaism.


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## cadavir

Croatian and Bosnian:
mir = peace
svijet, svit = world || but could also means people for example "Lot's of people" => "puno svita/svijeta"
and
svjetlo, svitlo = light


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## alby

cadavir said:
			
		

> Croatian and Bosnian:
> mir = peace
> svijet, svit = world || but could also means people for example "Lot's of people" => "puno svita/svijeta"
> and
> svjetlo, svitlo = light


 
I just wanted to say that words SVIT and SVITLO do not belong to Croatian standard language it's a dialect.
And word LIGHT can be translated as SVIJETLO - it's an adjective mostly use to describe colors like "Light blue" (svijetloplava), and SVJETLO - is used when we are talking about real light as electromagnetic radiation..."day light" (dnevno svjetlo), "turn on the light" (upali svjetlo)...

Nataša


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## Maja

In Serbian 

 mir = peace
 svet = world
svetlo = light

Ćaos!


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## polaco

gumish said:
			
		

> There is also a word _mir _in Polish, but to my knowlegde this means respect, good opinion. It is however quite rare literary word and could well be treated as an archaism.


 
_Mir _was used in old polish in meaning of _peace._ It still exists in modern polish as a legal term: _mir domowy_ - which means .......... I truly don't know how to translate it,_ peace of the home _maybe?

greetings


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## admor82

Esc said:
			
		

> There is almost none. When you talk about the world as a place where we all live, it can be both *свет* or *мир*. But you'll never hear the word *свет *on the news channel.It's kinda unofficial and unscientific and somewhat old-fashioned.



Don't forget the TV program "Вокруг света" - [around the world]


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## übermönch

'svetlo' also exists in Russian meaning 'bright'


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## clapec

I was just wondering what the meaning of the word "свет" is in _*Город 312*_'s song *Останусь*:

_"Останусь пеплом на губах,_
_Останусь пламенем в глазах, _
_В твоих руках дыханьем ветра..._
_Останусь снегом на щеке,_
_Останусь *светом* в далеке,_
_Я для тебя останусь - *светом*."_

Does it mean "world" or "light"?
 
Thank you very much!


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## Thomas1

polaco said:
			
		

> _Mir _was used in old polish in meaning of _peace._ It still exists in modern polish as a legal term: _mir domowy_ - which means .......... I truly don't know how to translate it,_ peace of the home _maybe?
> 
> greetings


I think vast majority of Polish wouldn't know what this word really means and the first thouth that comes into mind: is it Russian? 
It's simply not used nowadays, and frankly, I had to look it up in a dictionary to recollect what it really means. It's something like recognition, I think. I'm not sure about its etymology but it's quite possible that it used to mean peace as the expression you gave would allude to.

BTW: I came across the following translations: 
mir domowy - domestic peace or privacy of sb's home


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## cyanista

clapec said:
			
		

> I was just wondering what the meaning of the word "свет" is in _*Город 312*_'s song *Останусь*:
> 
> _"Останусь пеплом на губах,_
> _Останусь пламенем в глазах, _
> _В твоих руках дыханьем ветра..._
> _Останусь снегом на щеке,_
> *Останусь светом вдалеке,*
> _Я для тебя останусь - *светом*."_
> 
> Does it mean "world" or "light"?



I'm fairly sure it means light here. A faraway light as a symbol of love foregone... or something like that.


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## janecito

Juri said:
			
		

> In Slovenian world is SVET
> Peace is MIR



And light is *svetloba*.

The Slovenian word *svet *can have two other meanings as well (one is pronounced the same as the one meaning world, the other one has a different intonation), but probably of a different origin:

1. saint (*svét*) - short form of an adjective, masc., sg. (Russ. свят < святой)
2. council (*svèt*)


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## nimak

*Macedonian*:

world = *свет* (svet)
light = *светлина* (svétlina)
peace = *мир* (mir)


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## ahvalj

Some etymological context:
_mirъ_ "peace" is inherited, compare the Latvian miers and the obsolete Lithuanian mieras, the root is the same as in _milъ_ (Lithuanian mielas)
_světъ_ "light" is inherited as well, its exact etymological counterpart in Lithuanian, švaitas, now means "searchlight"
_světъ_ "world" seems to have no extant cognates in Baltic, where the word pasaulis/pasaule is used (literally "undersunland", "podъsъlnьje").


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## Christo Tamarin

nimak said:


> *Macedonian*:
> 
> world = *свет* (svet)
> light = *светлина* (svétlina)
> peace = *мир* (mir)


*Bulgarian*:

world = *свѣт* (свят)
light = *свѣтлина *(светлина)
peace = *мир*


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## Awwal12

ahvalj said:


> Some etymological context:
> _mirъ_ "peace" is inherited, compare the Latvian miers and the obsolete Lithuanian mieras, the root is the same as in _milъ_ (Lithuanian mielas)


...And its meaning "world" is  believed to be calqued from Latin.


Esc said:


> There is almost none. When you talk about the world as a place where we all live, it can be both *свет* or *мир*. But you'll never hear the word *свет *on the news channel.It's kinda unofficial and unscientific and somewhat old-fashioned.


Stylistically it's not particularly formal, but it's not the main issue with it. I doubt that "свет" in that meaning is used at all in Russian outside of certain phrasemes (like "на свете" - in the world, "весь свет" - all the world, "бродить по свету" - to roam the world, etc.). It, among other, cannot produce relative adjectives ("световой" can refer to light only).


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## nimak

@Christo Tamarin I didn't mention the other Macedonian words for _"light"_:



nimak said:


> light = *светлина* (svétlina)



light = *светлина* (svétlina) _n.f._, *светлост *(svétlost) _n.f._, *светло *(svétlo) _n.neut._, *светлота *(svétlota) _n.f._

Another thing, for _"world_" in Macedonian is also used the phrase *бели свет* (beli svet). Examples:
*на овој бели свет* (na ovoj beli svet) _"in this world"_;
*на белиов свет* (na beliov svet) _"in this world"_;
*на сиов бели свет* (na siov beli svet) _"in the entire world"_.


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## Awwal12

Yes, "белый свет" exists in Russian too (although it's not used much, being generally limited to poetry and folklore).


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## Vukabular

Serbian:
Sve - whole, all
Svet - world, holy, people
Svetlo - bright, light
Svetlost - light
Mir - peace, serenity, calm
Svemir (sve+mir) - universe
In Vedic "svarloka" where "svar"= sky, heaven and" loka"= world


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