In preparing it, Prof. Vailionis was a very resourceful coiner of new words where plant names collected from everyday speech were lacking. Meanwhile, whereas other members of the Dictionary Commission often tended to leave plants without a folk name with their Latin names, merely attaching a Lithuanian ending, Prof. Vailionis agreed to this last resort only in the direst need, when nothing suitable could be devised. Thus Prof. Vailionis gave our dictionary many successful plant names, such as maražolė (Tunica prolifera), puikūnas (Mimulus guttatus), šiaudenis (Anthericum ramosum), and others. Prof. Vailionis also stubbornly defended certain Lithuanian terms in plant anatomy terminology, for example, akelė, refusing to use celė, the term familiar to other biologists. It is a great pity that he will no longer be able to contribute to the preparation of the second part of this dictionary (terms for plant anatomy, morphology, and physiology)—here there would have been even broader scope for his creativity.

Liudas Vailionis (1886–1939)

// Gamta. 1939. No. 3. P. 194–195.

When discussing microorganisms, which are representatives of an entirely new world for the pupil, more extensive descriptions and illustrations are essential. <...> By the way, Volvox and Ulothrix are illustrated upside down and in reverse order. These microorganisms also needed Lithuanian names to be devised, or older colleagues to be consulted—or at least Lithuanian transliterations to be provided: how is a pupil in grade I supposed to pronounce the word Vaucheria?

A. Jakučionis. Gamtos vadovėlis I reformuotai klasei. K., 1936. 110 p.

– Review: J. Dagys: [Untitled]

// Gamta. 1937. No. 2. P. 121.

Prepared by Jolanta GAIVENYTĖ

Prof. L. Mulevičius and historical terminology

In the spring of 1993, just before Easter, the renowned Lithuanian historian Prof. habil. Dr. L. Mulevičius died. An honorable and very decent man departed for the realm of Hades, where, in the words of the poet A. Žukauskas, “nothing will ever begin and nothing will ever end”...

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L. Mulevičius was born in 1927 in Kiduliai (Šakiai District). In 1954, he graduated from Vilnius University, worked for many years as a senior research fellow at the Institute of History, and headed its Department of Feudalism (now the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) History. In 1979, L. Mulevičius defended his habilitation thesis (in the terminology of the time, a doctoral dissertation in historical sciences), “The Peasant Movement in Lithuania, 1864–1904.” In 1984, he was awarded the title of professor.

In 1979, Prof. L. Mulevičius conceived the idea of compiling a dictionary of historical terms. In 1980, his article “A Dictionary of Historical Terms Is Needed” was published in the Lithuanian History Yearbook (hereafter LIM). In this article, he perceptively described the subject matter of historical terminology and indicated how the terminology of this field differs from that of other fields, namely: many historical terms had entered the passive vocabulary and were no longer used; most historical terms were not universal, since they had been used only in a particular region (state, national territory, administrative unit); and standardizing the terms of Lithuanian history and explaining their origins were made more difficult by the fact that terms from the feudal and, in part, capitalist periods were non-Lithuanian.

Over more than ten years, with the assistance of E. Gudavičius and other historians, Prof. L. Mulevičius published many excellent articles on historical terms in LIM. He wrote about titles of rank (LIM 1983 116–123), concepts of measures of land area, “valakas” and “margas” (LIM 1982 73–87), the translation into Lithuanian of certain historical terms (осада, мировой посредник, etc.) (LIM 1986 85–91), Germanisms in historical terminology (LIM 1988 150–151), and more. Linguists are particularly interested in L. Mulevičius’s reflections on the term apydėme (LIM 1989 91–96). This term also has a proper-name variant—the name of the goddess Apydėmė. In sources from the 16th–17th centuries, the following forms of the term apydėmė were in use: apidemali, apideme, apidemie, apidemis, apidomela, opedom, opidam, opideme, opidemia, opidoma, and others. Prof. L. Mulevičius writes of these variants: “Understandably, a homestead site, the land around a homestead and fields that was better fertilized, and the site of demolished and burned buildings with clay and other remains could for a long time be distinguished from the surrounding soil by its color and by more luxuriant, darker crops. A word used in this sense should be written not apideme, apidemė, but apydėmė.” There are reportedly at least seven villages in Lithuania whose names are related to the word apydėme: Apidėme (Kelmė and Panevėžys Districts), Apidemės (Šilalė District), Apidemis (Kaišiadorys District), Apydemis (Utena District), Apydemiškis

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(Zarasai District), and Apydimai (Telšiai District). In Prof. L. Mulevičius’s view, the word apydėmė now has more than one lexical meaning: not only “a plot of land between village homesteads or on their outskirts,” but also “the site of a former homestead; a homestead site.” The latter meaning is not distinguished even in the comprehensive Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language.

In 1979, a public discussion on the names of the estates was held at the Institute of History, since the privileged estate in feudal Lithuania was referred to in two ways: the estate of the nobles and the estate of the szlachta. Summarizing this discussion, Prof. L. Mulevičius wrote an article arguing that Lithuania had four principal estates during the feudal and capitalist periods: the clergy, the nobility, the townspeople, and the peasantry. Alternatively, they could be termed the clergy, the nobility, the urban estate, and the peasant estate.

Prof. L. Mulevičius was also interested in philological matters, but never imposed his views on anyone. He was very tolerant and, to use Vydūnas’s words, a sunny person. Unfortunately, we must now speak of his work in the past tense. It has become part of the history of Lithuanian scholarship.

Kazimieras GAIVENIS

P. Slavėnas and the word communism

Prof. P. Slavėnas (1901–1991), žymus Lietuvos astronomas, buvo plačių interesų mokslininkas. Jis domėjosi ne tik astronomija, fizika, gamtos mokslais, bet ir kalbotyra. P. Slavėnas keliolika metų buvo Terminologijos tarybos prie MA prezidiumo narys, nuolat bendravo su kalbininkais.

P. Slavėnas was a great polymath. He could talk to linguists for hours, not about astronomy but about his theories of linguistics. Well versed not only in classical languages but also in many modern foreign languages, he enjoyed comparing them and drawing far-reaching conclusions. P. Slavėnas especially liked to compare the Baltic languages not only with the Germanic and Slavic languages, but even with Semitic, Turkic, and other more distant non-Indo-European languages. Even specialists found it difficult to discern which parts of his theories were rational and which belonged to the realm of fantasy. Yet the professor, as befits a great scholar, was very tolerant and did not take offense when linguists did not always believe his arguments. He also liked to make predictions about the future of languages. On this subject, he had written an article for Kalbos kultūra which,

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