покамест

Russian

Alternative forms

• пока́месть (pokámestʹ), пока́месь (pokámesʹ), пока́мес (pokámes), пока́меся (pokámesja), пока́мечь (pokámečʹ), пока́мича (pokámiča), пока́ме (pokáme), пока́м (pokám) — dialectal
• пока́места (pokámesta) — obsolete
• пока́мѣстъ (pokáměst), покамѣста (pokaměsta) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle Russian покамѣстъ (pokaměst) (по ка мѣстъ att. since 1560s), from earlier покамѣста (pokaměsta) (по ка мѣста since 1509), presumably from Old Church Slavonic по (po) каꙗ (kaja) мѣста (města) (att. in Middle Russian since 1559), literally 'to which places' or 'until which places', which is a Slavonic analog of indigenous Middle Russian по кои мѣста (po koi města) attested since 1430s. The loss of final -а, according to Sobolevsky, is a regular phonological development throughout East Slavic.

The original spatial sense evolved into a temporal meaning ("until now", "for now", "presently") and later also developed a conjunctional function ("for the time being", "until"). The temporal meaning for Old East Slavic мѣсто (město) is attested already in the 14th c.

Dialectal variants with до- instead of по-, such as Russian докамест (dokamest), also exist (Middle Russian до ка мѣста (do ka města) att. in 1565). Also older потамѣстъ (potaměst), посѧмѣстъ (posjaměst). Compare пока (poka) and related phrases like по тѣхъ мѣстъ, до тѣхъ мѣстъ ('up to that time/place').

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [pɐˈkamʲɪst]

Adverb

пока́мест • (pokámest)

1. (colloquial) till, until

   Synonym: пока́ (poká)

   • 1842, Николай Гоголь, “Том I, Глава 1”, in Мёртвые души; English translation from Constance Garnett, transl., Dead Souls, London: Chatto & Windus, 1922:

     Покамест слуги управлялись и возились, господин отправился в общую залу.

     Pokamest slugi upravljalisʹ i vozilisʹ, gospodin otpravilsja v obščuju zalu.

     While the attendants had been thus setting things straight the gentleman had repaired to the common parlour.