In the XIX century, the verb to take care of is drawn into the orbit of "amorous" words and phrases. On the basis of its meanings "1 - to have care of someone or look after someone; 2 - to hang around someone, please someone", it develops another thing: to show a woman a love-erotic interest, seeking her favor. An example is already found in the "Stone Guest" by A. S. Pushkin: [Leporello] Ineza! "black-eyed.".. Oh, I remember. You've been courting for three months Follow her; the evil one helped us with great difficulty! In the "Story of Pushkin's relationship to Dantes" by a colleague of Zh. Dantes on the cavalry regiment of A.V. Trubetskoy (1813 - 1889), recorded from his words in 1897, was contrasted with slang page 111 how to hit on a more common person (Russian antiquity. 1901. January-March). However, dictionaries of the XIX century do not note the new meaning of the verb to take care of. V. I. Dahl did not register it either. Later, the noun suitor was formed from this meaning, which came into use already in the first years of the 20th century. So, it appears in the story of N. N. Nikandrovich ""Thief" from Quarantine " (Krymsky Vestnik. 1903. No. 76 of March 22). In the title, it is taken in quotation marks, but in the text itself, the more familiar cavalier is used instead, since the word courtship was still, apparently, a very recent neologism. In lexicographic practice, a new noun was registered for the first time by the editor of the third edition of V. I. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary, acad. IA Baudouin de Courtenay - and in two forms: boyfriend and wooer "courting a girl or an adult lady, saying compliments to her, etc." (V. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary of the living Great Russian language. 3rd ispr. and significant additional ed. Edited by I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, Moscow, 1909, Vol. IV), although I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay did not take into account the corresponding meaning of the verb to take care of. The new formation gradually gained populari ... Read more