Towards a lexicographic description of the Russian verb терпеть

The paper provides a lexicographic portrait (or, rather, a rough sketch for a lexicographic portrait) of the Russian verb терпеть along the lines suggested in (Шмелев, 2003). Special attention is paid to the aspectual behavior of the verb and to its numerous derivatives since it is morphologically very productive and different derivatives correspond to its different lexical meanings (in addition, some of the connotations of the verb may become a part of the lexical meaning of a derivative). A brief overview of the lexical meanings of the verb follows: 1.1 ‘to bear suffering with patience’ 1.2 ‘to resist impatience’ 2 ‘to tolerate’ 3 OPER (‘an occurrence of something bad’) In addition, the cultural significance of the attitudes encoded in various readings of the verb терпеть and its derivatives is discussed.