The article is devoted to ethnic contacts in the European North of Russia and their reflection in the vocabulary of dialects of the European North of Russia. Names of types of settlements borrowed from languages of local people are considered. Lexemes are etymologized: languages and sources of borrowing are defined. Polyglot origins of lexemes are revealed: various types of borrowings from Finno-Ugric (mainly Baltic-Finnish type) to low-frequency turkisms and borrowings from European languages are presented. It is defined that the borrowed appellative names of settlements and their parts in dialects of the European North of Russia represent a various group of words semantically and etymologically. Finno-Ugric borrowings mark the ideogram ʽbush villages-several settlements located in close proximityʼ. Only through lexemes borrowed from the Finno-Ugric languages the semantics 'space outside the home, in the fresh air' is transmitted. Designations of temporary dwellings, abandoned settlements are exclusively Finno-Ugric in origin. Ideograms ʽa hut made by a shepherd from coniferous twigs for protection from the weatherʼ, the space outside the house in the fresh airʼ, ʽa place to sleep outdoorsʼ, the place where the guard, the guard postʼ are marked in North Russian dialects only through lexemes with the Finno-Ugric roots, and the sources of borrowing are diverse. For most lexemes, the analyzed meanings are secondary either at the level of the source language or in Russian. The most frequent development of meaning is based on some different geographical semantics: bezlesny mountain, vozvyshennosti, Nizina, Dolina, Ugol, side, cry.