ETYMOLOGICAL NOTES ON SLAVIC LEXICON


2015. № 1 (4), 210-229

Vinodradov Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract:

The subject of this etymological study consists of several lexemes with internal forms not clear to etymologists: 1) The author proves the linguistic affinity of Russian adv. naruzhu ‘outwards, outside’ and Russian dialectal n. ruzh’ ‘appearance, an exterior’ as well as Bulgarian v. rúzha (se) ‘to be going to do something, to prepare (be prepared), to equip (be equipped)’, Serbian vv. orúzha (se) ‘to put the house in order’, oruzhúe (se) / oruzhúye (se) ‘to put in order’ etc. within the lexical family of Common Slavic *obrǫga (Russian dial. obruga ‘a head-dress, a head- gear, a hat’), *obrǫžьje (Old Church Slavic orǫzhie ‘a kind of weapon, a sword’), *obrǫžati (sę) (Serb-Croat orùzhati ‘to arm’, orúzham se ‘to put on’) etc. with a root *rǫg-, cognate to Lithuanian v. reñgti(s) ‘to be going to do, to equip (be equipped), to arrange (be arranged), to dress, to put on’, n. aprangà ‘equipment, clothes’ etc.; the general meaning ‘to equip, put in order, give appearance’ covering all the set of realities became a starting point for development of meaning ‘appearance’; 2) The interpretation of Common Slavic term of sculpturing *vajati within the paradigm of v. *viti is based on Russian dialectal n. svaya ‘a crowd, a band’ with lengthening of the root vowel and Old Russian n. suvoy (< *sǫvojь ~ *viti, *vojь) ‘snowdrift’, Czech n. vajka ‘a snow-storm’,  Serb-Croat n. sváa ‘the girl who plaits a wreath for the bride’ etc. and  some extra-linguistic facts; 3) The general line of semantic developmenttowards the meaning of ‘to manage; to carry’ is traced for verbs *pojiti: *pajiti in Slavic dialects; 4) The author argues that Slovene n. práha ‘der Ausflug der Bienen’ is closely connected to v. prašiti se ‘to take off, be separated (about bees)’ and Russian dialectal n. poroshenie ‘a ritual in wedding ceremony’; 5) The author assumes that the etymologically unclear Slovene v. priklútiti ‘about an inoculation of a young tree’ is close to Serb v. sklutam (se) ‘to  attract (be attracted), to fit, to adhere’, and proposes an etymological explanation on the basis of the I.-E. root *kleu- /*klou- (cheh. чеш. kleviti se ‘bend, bended’), expanded by a suffix -tъ, compare Common Slavic *koltъ, *brutъ, *slutъ etc.