Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/gorьkъ

From *goře (“sorrow, grief”) +‎ *-ьkъ.^[1]

*gȍrьkъ^[1][2][3]

1. bitter (for taste)
2. (figurative) sorrowful (for situation, emotion)

• *gorьčica (“bitter appetizer”)
• *gorьčivъ (“bitter”)

• *gorěti (“to burn”)
• *žarъkъ (“fervent, scorching”)
• *gořьjь (“worse”) (technically the comparative degree of *gȍrьkъ)

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: го́ркі (hórki)
  • Russian: го́рький (górʹkij)
  • Ukrainian: гірки́й (hirkýj)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic: горькъ (gorĭkŭ)
    • Bulgarian: го́рък (górǎk)
  • Macedonian: горок (gorok) (rare)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: го́рак

    Latin script: górak

  • Slovene: górək, gorák (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: hořký (“bitter”), horký (“hot”)
  • Polabian: ďörťĕ
  • Old Polish: gorki, gorski, gorzki (“bitter”)
    • Polish: gorzki (“bitter”)
    • Silesian: gorski, gorzki (“bitter”)
  • Pomeranian:
    • Kashubian: gòrzczi
  • >? Silesian: gorki (“hot”)
  • Slovak: horký
  • Sorbian:
    • Lower Sorbian: górki
    • Upper Sorbian: hórki

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “го́рький”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1980), “*gorьkъ(jь)”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 7 (*golvačь – *gyžati), Moscow: Nauka, page 55
• Georgiev, Vladimir I., editor (1971), “горък”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 1 (А – З), Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Pubg. House, →ISBN, page 266