A chort (Russian: чёрт, Belarusian and Ukrainian: чорт, Serbo-Croatian čort or črt, Polish: czart and czort, 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) "чёрт побери" ("chort poberi") – meaning "be taken by the demon" (often used as an exclamation to express frustration or pain as in English "darn!", "rats!", "----!", etc.), the saying is often used as an acceptable version of cursing in Eastern Europe; "чёрт попутал" ("chort poputal") – meaning mixed up by the demon; "к чертям" ("k chertyam") – meaning to hell, and many others.
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