Ze Staročeského slovníku: lexikograficky sporné výrazy říčník, ryčník, ručník

There are several obscure Old Czech words beginning with ri-/ři-/ry- and ending with –čník, and it is not easy to identify both their original form and their meaning. Three of them are analysed in this paper: the noun written in the 13th century as ricznik can be understood as řiečník – ‘supervisor of river wood-shipping’; the noun ryčník used in the knightly tale Duke Ernest should be removed from dictionaries and understood as ručník – ‘player of the string instrument hold in the hand’ (cf. Old German hande seitenspil and Old Czech ručnicě ‘nablum, cithara etc.’), a word which appears also in the Klaret’s dictionary (so far interpreted as a ‘towel’ there). The word ručník is polysemic, it means – beside other things – also a carriage drawn by people, not by animals (it is a translation of the Latin biblical raeda).