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While Valentin Kiparsky claimed (in Omagiu lui Iordan) that this usage is a calque from Tatar and therefore found in the Russian varieties spoken in and near Kazan (the area of the Tatar-speaking former Kazan Khanate), he gives no source for this and only cites one occurrence in a novel by an author who did go to university in Kazan (but was not born there).

Is there any evidence of the word фамилия being used with the meaning of "wife" beyond this area?

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    Unfortunately, "if anyone has anything to add to this, I'd appreciate it" is not a question we can answer here. Do you have a concrete, answerable question? If yes, please edit the post and add it there. Thank you! Commented Oct 10, 2023 at 12:25
  • Why do Russians love the word calque so much? It used so rarely in linguistics anymore. We use loanword or loan translation: books.google.com/ngrams/… Commented Oct 10, 2023 at 16:24
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    @CocoPop: because "loanword" and "calque" mean different things. хризантема is a loanword from Greek (< χρῡσανθής, "golden flower") , златоцвет is a calque. Apparently, "loan translation" is a synonym for "calque" (I didn't know that), but it looks like it's used less: books.google.com/ngrams/… Commented Oct 10, 2023 at 18:18
  • @CocoPop — “Why do Russians love the word calque so much?” Obviously, because Russian is not English. This is the most accurate word, «калька» for very many cases of the phenomenon, and this is not the same as «заимствование». «Калька» is a special case of «заимствования», that's it. Also, it is possible that the calques are more widespread in Russian. So, unlike many other words, this one is quite natural. Commented Sep 26, 2025 at 22:40
  • @Quassnoi — perfectly correct. On the side of Russian, I would also note that the notion «калька» is very different from «заимствование» — «калька» is a special case of «заимствования». Perhaps the calques are more widespread in Russian. So, unlike many other words, the word «калька» is very natural in Russian. I adequately describes many situations. Commented Sep 26, 2025 at 22:54

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