The article is devoted to the changes in semantics, connotations and collocation of Russian words «безбожник» and «беззаветный», functioning in literary and folk traditions. These changes are determined by the transformation of social values (by the attitude to religion in particular) and linguistic causes. The possibility of analogical or, on the contrary, dissimilar functioning of these words in official and folk discourse is proved in the article. The role of negative prefix «без-» in language being of these lexemes is clarified.