Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/žerava

This Proto-Slavic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Slavic

Etymology

Substantivized form of the adjective *žeravъ (“scorching, burning”) +‎ *-a. Some descendants have epenthetic -j-, probably by analogy with Proto-Slavic *žařavъ, *žařavica (“scorching heat, hearth”), from Proto-Slavic *žařati (“to burn down”).^[1]

Noun

*žera̋va f

live coal
hearth

Declension

Declension of *žerava (hard a-stem)
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*žerava	*žeravě	*žeravy
genitive	*žeravy	*žeravu	*žeravъ
dative	*žeravě	*žeravama	*žeravamъ
accusative	*žeravǫ	*žeravě	*žeravy
instrumental	žeravojǫ, žeravǫ^**	*žeravama	*žeravami
locative	*žeravě	*žeravu	žeravasъ, žeravaxъ^*
vocative	*žeravo	*žeravě	*žeravy

^* -asъ is the expected Balto-Slavic form but is found only in some Old Czech documents; -axъ is found everywhere else and is formed by analogy with other locative plurals in -xъ.
^** The second form occurs in languages that contract early across /j/ (e.g. Czech), while the first form occurs in languages that do not (e.g. Russian).

Related terms

*žarъ (“glow, heat”)
*žarъkъ (“hot, scorching”)

Derived terms

*žeravica (diminutive)
*žeravъka (diminutive)

Descendants

South Slavic:
- Bulgarian: жера́ва (žeráva), жара́ва (žaráva)
- Serbo-Croatian:
  Cyrillic script: жѐрава, же̏равица
  
  Latin script: žèrava, žerȁva, žȅravica
- Slovene: žerjȃvica, žerjȃvka (“heartburn”)

References

^ Snoj, Marko (2016) “žerjȃvica”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar [Slovenian Etymology Dictionary] (in Slovene), 3rd edition, https://fran.si: “Pslovan. *žera̋vъ”