THE HISTORY OF NOTION «MESHCHANSTVO» IN RUSSIAN XVII CENTURY LINGUISTIC PRACTICE

The paper deals with the analysis of the historical aspect of the notion «meschanstvo» (lower middle class) in the Russian linguistic practice of the XVII century. The analysis of sociocultural context of the notion is based on the achievements of different schools of thought: German Begriffsgeschifte, French «Linguistic History of Conceptual Word Use», as well as «History of Concepts|» (K. Skinner, J.G.A. Pockok). The process of reception of the borrowed word as part of «the image of Stranger» and the way it is accepted by the Russian language are presented in the paper.