2017-02-25

испачкать is a perfective form [1] that corresponds to the perfective пачкать, meaning “Делать грязным; грязнить, мазать.” [2]. It’s the verb used by people who want to ask me or inform me that there’s ketchup on my shirt. Both forms can be used reflexively: испачкаться, пачкаться. Vasmer believes it might be an onomatopoeia, and cites a similar-sounding word in German, patschen, to exemplify his point, saying that the Russian word is probably not a loan from German because it’s absent in Polish [3]. He does acknowledge the Polish word paćkać, and both Шанский [4] and Крылов [5] think the Russian word is a loanword from German, via Polish.

  • [1] испачкать. С. А. Кузнецов, Большой толковый словарь русского языка. Грамота
  • [2] пачкать. С. А. Кузнецов, Большой толковый словарь русского языка. Грамота
  • [3] пачкать. Max Vasmer, Этимологический словарь русского языка. ΛΓΩ / Starling
  • [4] пачкать. Н. М. Шанский, Этимологический словарь русского языка. ΛΓΩ
  • [5] пачкать. Г. А. Крылов, Этимологический словарь русского языка. ΛΓΩ