Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/otava
Proto-Slavic
Etymology
Uncertain. Proposed etymologies include:
- Perhaps from Proto-Balto-Slavic *atōw-, *atōl-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂et- (“grass”). Cognate with Lithuanian atolas, Old Prussian attolis, Latvian atals.
- Vasmer, Trubachev, Georgiev: Derived or akin to Proto-Slavic *otaviti (“to regather strength”) (> Czech otaviti (“to restore strength, to take a breath”), Slovene otáviti (“to strengthen, to refresh”)), formed as Proto-Slavic *ob- (“off, around”) + *tyti (“to fatten”), from Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂- (“to swell, to bulk”). Analogous to Proto-Slavic *zabava (“performance, fun”) from Proto-Slavic *byti (“to become”).
- Machek, Snoj: Deverbial from Proto-Slavic *otaviti (“to reappear”), formed as Proto-Slavic *ot- (“out of”) + *(j)aviti (“to appear”).
- Mladenov: Possibly influenced or derived from Proto-Turkic *ot (“grass”). Nowadays dismissed due to the wide spread of the lemma.
Noun
*otàva f[1]
- aftergrass, aftermath; grass that comes up after mowing
Inflection
| singular | dual | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | *otava | *otavě | *otavy |
| genitive | *otavy | *otavu | *otavъ |
| dative | *otavě | *otavama | *otavamъ |
| accusative | *otavǫ | *otavě | *otavy |
| instrumental | *otavojǫ, *otavǫ** | *otavama | *otavami |
| locative | *otavě | *otavu | *otavasъ, *otavaxъ* |
| vocative | *otavo | *otavě | *otavy |
* -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).
Derived terms
- *otavьnъ
- *otavica, *otavъka (“young grass”) (diminutive)
- *otavišče (augmentative)
- *otaviti (“to regrow after mowing”)
Descendants
- East Slavic:
- South Slavic:
- West Slavic:
- Eastern Romance:
- Romanian: otavă
Further reading
- Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “отава”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
- Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (2003), “*obtava”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 30 (*obsojьnikъ – *obvedьnъjь), Moscow: Nauka, →ISBN, page 159
- Georgiev, Vladimir I., Duridanov, I. V., editors (1995), “отава”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 4 (мѝнго² – па̀дам), Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov Pubg. House, →ISBN, page 953
References
- ^ Snoj, Marko (2016) “otȃva”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar [Slovenian Etymology Dictionary] (in Slovene), 3rd edition, https://fran.si: “Pslovan. *ota̋va”