Etymological nest with root *mxr- in the Russian language

The article defines the concepts of etymological nest and semantic evolution in the history of the Russian language. The authors consider the correlation of the terms ‘word-formation', ‘lexical', ‘root' and ‘etymological nest'. They also give a complex description of some lexemes going back to the etymological nest with the root *mхr-. The method of semantic field is applied in the analysis of semantic structure of the word ‘death' in diachronic aspect. The article presents a typology of semantic shifts in the lexemes of the nest (hyper-hyponymic, deviation, metaphorical).