Символика чисел в татарском языке

This article explores the origin and semantic development of Tatar lexical items which characterize human beings in a metaphoric manner. The analysis of their historical and semantic development is conducted in comparison to other Turkic and certain non-Turkic languages. The Tatar language uses metaphorized names of animals, mythological persons, different human occupations, household goods, natural phenomena, etc. to characterize human beings. Most of this lexis is common Turkic (Old Turkic) lexical items. A considerable part of these lexical items is the borrowings with the centuries-old history based on their religious meanings.