Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/žito

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

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *géiˀta, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃tom, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃-.

Baltic cognates include Old Prussian geytye, geits (“bread”).

Indo-European cognates include Irish biathaim, Welsh bwyd (“food, meat”).

Noun

*žìto n

grain, corn

Inflection

Declension of *žìto (hard o-stem, accent paradigm a)
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*žìto	*žìtě	*žìta
genitive	*žìta	*žìtu	*žìtъ
dative	*žìtu	*žìtoma	*žìtomъ
accusative	*žìto	*žìtě	*žìta
instrumental	žìtъmь, žìtomь^*	*žìtoma	*žìtȳ
locative	*žìtě	*žìtu	*žìtě̄xъ
vocative	*žìto	*žìtě	*žìta

^* -ъmь in North Slavic, -omь in South Slavic.

Related terms

*gojь
*žiti (“to live”)
*živica
*životъ (“life”)
*živъ (“alive”)

Descendants

East Slavic:
- Old East Slavic: *жи́то (*žíto)
  - Old Ruthenian: жи́то (žíto)
    - Belarusian: жы́та (žýta)
    - Ukrainian: жи́то (žýto)
  - Russian: жи́то (žíto)
South Slavic:
- Old Church Slavonic: жито (žito)
- Bulgarian: жи́то (žíto)
- Macedonian: жи́то (žíto)
- Serbo-Croatian:
  Latin script: žȉto
  
  Cyrillic script: жи̏то
- Slovene: žito
West Slavic:
- Old Czech: žito
  - Czech: žito (“rye”)
    - Moravian (Mistřice): žito (“wheat”)
- Kashubian: żëto
- Polabian: zaitü
- Old Polish: żyto
  - Polish: żyto
- Slovak: žito
- Sorbian:
  - Upper Sorbian: žito
  - Lower Sorbian: žyto

References

Derksen, Rick (2008) “*žìto”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 4), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 563
Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “жито”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress