The system by which Russians over the ages named their sighthounds was a series of descriptive terms, not actual names. Borzói is the masculine singular form of an archaic Russian adjective that means 'fast'. Borzáya sobáka ('fast dog') is the basic term used by Russians, though sobáka is usually dropped. The name psovaya derived from the word psovina, which means 'wavy, silky coat', just as hortaya (as in hortaya borzaya) means shorthaired. For decades the generations of few remaining sighthounds were regarded as hunting-suited, when showing enough attacking initiative for fox hunting.