A chort (Russian: чёрт, Belarusian and Ukrainian: чорт, Serbo-Croatian čort or črt, Polish: czort and czart, Czech and Slovak: čert, Slovene: črt) is an anthropomorphic malign spirit or demon in Slavic folk tradition. Chorts are often depicted identically to Christian devils, with horns, hooves, and a skinny tail. In Slavic mythology, a singular Chort is sometimes identified as a son of the god Chernobog and the goddess Mara. Likewise, in Ukraine mythology, Chorts were originally the priest of Chernobog. In folk Christianity, they are considered lesser minions of Satan. Compare to Russian sayings (curses) "тысяча чертей" ("tysjača čertej") – meaning thousands of demons; "чёрт побери" ("čort poberi") – meaning "be taken by the demon" (often used as an exclamation to express frustration or pain as in English "darn!", "rats!", "shit!", etc), the saying is often used as an acceptable version of cursing in Eastern Europe; "чёрт попутал" ("čort poputal") – meaning mixed up by the demon; "к чертям" ("k čertjam") – meaning to hell, and many others. Etymology There are many theories regarding the origins of the Proto-Slavic word *čьrtъ. One is that it is a substantivized t-participle of *ker- (to cut, to chop), which could be derived from a chort imagined as being lame (having one leg shorter). The words like Ukrainian kutsiy and Czech and Slovak kusý, also derived from *ker-, are one of chort's most common epithets. According to a more recent hypothesis, Proto-Slavic *čьrtъ represents a derivative of *čersti / čьrtǫ ‘to draw a line, furrow’. One way to interpret this derivation is reconstructing *čьrtъ as a supernatural Draughtsman in charge of determining human fate. Under this hypothesis, the original god of destiny came to be perceived as the bringer of death and then syncretised with the embodiment of all evil in the Christian tradition. In Ukrainian, chorts are also known as , , , and . The Polish version of the word, czart, is notably similar to the proto-germanic -swarta, which means black. In Czech and Slovak culture In Czech and Slovak folk tales, čert is not an evil character per se. It is often trying to tease characters in selling their souls in exchange for something (money, power, completion of a task). This often ends badly for evil or greedy characters, who are tricked into getting useless gifts and then are carried into hell. Other times, čert changes roles from trickster to tricked as