The two Pskov hits are citations from Old Russian chronicles. In this
passage--
� ���� 6822. ���� ���� ����� ����, � ����� ��������� ����,
�� ���� ������ �������; � ���� �������� ����� �����;
���� �� �� �������� ����� �����.
(Sorry if this comes out as gibberish--I'm at work and don't have
time to transliterate.)
"dragostI" and "dorogostI" are apparently free variants, the first a
Church Slavic form and the second with East Slavic polnoglasie. The
word in this context means "dearness" = "high prices," as near as I can
make out. All my Old Russian materials are home at the moment.
Jim Rader
>
> Russian _dorogost'_ exists (see e.g.
> http://dic.academic.ru/misc/enc2p.nsf/ByID/NT00038546 ), but I only
> got 14 hits when I googled for it in Cyrillic. I got 3 hits on
> _dragost'_ in Cyrillic, but one might have been Belorussian (
> kamunikat.net.iig.pl/www/knizki/ brama/kraj1-2-2002/11.htm ), and the
> other two both had associations with Pskov (
> www.hrono.ru/statii/2003/1311-1318.html ,
> gubernia.pskovregion.org/number_58/13.php ), whatever that implies.
>
> I would say the answer is 'no', whatever the precise meaning of your
> question.
>
> Richard.
Jim Rader
Etymology Editor
Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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