In everyday speech, the word "crest" can be found almost more often than "Ukrainian". What does this word mean and where did it come from? Is it an insult or is “crest” a friendly nickname of the fraternal people?
The playful nickname "crest" does not seem to contain anything offensive, but the Ukrainians themselves react to this word with resentment. The word "khokhol" is an exonym, that is, the name of a people that arose outside of it and is used by another ethnic group. The Ukrainians themselves do not call themselves that, except in those cases when they talk about the worst features of their national character.
Should Ukrainians be offended by this nickname? Such authoritative researchers of the Russian language as S. Ozhegov and V. Dal did not consider the word "crest" offensive: both lexicographers assert that the crest is the same as the Ukrainian, without any derogatory connotations, and Ozhegov adds that the word is outdated and colloquial. But in Ushakov's dictionary we read that “the crest - in the mouths of chauvinists - is Ukrainian”, and that this word is joking and abusive.
Among Ukrainian researchers, there is also no single view of the word "khokhol". A large explanatory dictionary of the modern Ukrainian language states that "crest is a derogatory name for a Ukrainian." But the famous Ukrainian prose writer and public figure V. Vynnychenko wrote that the word "crest" seems humiliating and insulting only to those who do not know the history of the origin of this word. Apparently, the word itself is neutral, and the context in which it is used makes it offensive or friendly.
The first mention of the word "crest" is found in Polikarpov's Trilingual Lexicon of 1704, but it is obvious that the word appeared in colloquial speech much earlier. There are several versions of the origin of the word "crest". So, some researchers believe that the word came from the Mongolian language and is associated with the colors of the Ukrainian flag: "khokh ulu" in translation from Mongolian means "blue-yellow". Other studies trace the word “crest” to the Turkic expression “hoh ool”, which means “son of heaven”.
However, the most popular and realistic version claims that the Ukrainians got this nickname in connection with the traditional hairstyle of the Cossacks - a bun of hair on a shaved head. There is a legend that once Peter I invited the Cossacks to negotiate in St. Petersburg. And the Europeanized Petersburg intelligentsia was so amazed by the unusual Cossack hairstyles that the negotiators were nicknamed "crested people", and so this nickname stuck to the entire Ukrainian nation.
Given the importance that the Cossacks attached to their crests, this version seems quite convincing. This hairstyle was a symbol of Cossack valor and honor; Cossacks were forbidden to wear forelocks to traitors, cowards, dishonest, convicted of lies and other sins. To cut off a Cossack an oseleader was a mortal insult. This reverent attitude towards the settlers is rooted in antiquity: in the days of Kievan Rus, such a hairstyle spoke of a noble origin. The Cossacks themselves called their hairstyles with their characteristic humor: "oseledets" translated from Ukrainian means "herring".
