Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/golvačь

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

Literally "headed". From *golva (“head”) +‎ *-ačь

Noun

*golvačь m

1. big-headed man/animal
2. intelligent man (Polish)
3. stubborn man (South and West Slavic)

Inflection

Declension of *golvačь (soft o-stem)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*golvačь	*golvača	*golvači
genitive	*golvača	*golvaču	*golvačь
dative	*golvaču	*golvačema	*golvačemъ
accusative	*golvačь	*golvača	*golvačę̇
instrumental	*golvačьmь, *golvačemь*	*golvačema	*golvači
locative	*golvači	*golvaču	*golvačixъ
vocative	*golvaču	*golvača	*golvači

^* -ьmь in North Slavic, -emь in South Slavic.

Related terms

• *golvatъ (“big-headed; intelligent (East Slavic); stubborn (West Slavic)”)

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: галава́ч (halaváč)
  • Russian: голова́ч (golováč)
  • Ukrainian: голова́ч (holováč)
• South Slavic:
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: гла̀ва̄ч

    Latin script: glavač (“stubborn”, adj)

  • Slovene: glaváč
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: hlaváč
  • Polish: głowacz
  • Slovak: hlaváč, hláč
  • Slovincian: glôwócz
  • Sorbian:
    • Upper Sorbian: hłowač

References

• Chernykh, P. Ja. (1993) “голова”, in Историко-этимологический словарь русского языка [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), 3rd edition, volumes 1 (а – пантомима), Moscow: Russian Lang., →ISBN, page 200
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1980), “*golvačь”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 7 (*golvačь – *gyžati), Moscow: Nauka, page 7