Reconstruction:Proto-Balto-Slavic/métas
Proto-Balto-Slavic
editEtymology
editCommonly proposed etymologies:
- From Proto-Indo-European *met- (“to measure”), originally meaning “measure of time”. Akin to Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “unit of measure, metre”), Proto-Iranian *mā́θyah (“day”) and further related to Proto-Indo-Iranian *mā́tiš (“measure”), Old English mǣþ (“measure”), Albanian mot (“weather, era”), Proto-Slavic *měta (“mark, label”). Often compared with synonymous roots *meh₁-, *med-, perhaps all extensions of the instrumental/locative particle *me (“amids, with, by”).
- From Proto-Indo-European *h₂met- (“to mow, to jolt, to sweep”), originally meaning “harvest, season”. Akin to Ancient Greek ἄμητος (ámētos, “harvest”), Latin messis (“harvest, season”), Proto-Germanic *mēþwō (“meadow”).
Derksen favours the first option, while Szemerényi - the second.
Noun
edit*métas n[1] (Baltic)
Inflection
editS-stem, fixed accent.
This noun needs an inflection-table template.
Related terms
edit- *mátas (“measure, aim”) (possibly)
- *matī́ˀtei, *matrī́ˀtei (“to look at, to watch”) (possibly)
Descendants
edit- East Baltic: (reanalyzed as masc. o-stem)
- West Baltic:
- Slavic:
- ⇒? Proto-Slavic: *bezmetьnъ/*bezmětьnъ (“transcendental, idyllic, timeless”) (possibly)
Further reading
edit- Derksen, Rick (2015) “metas”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Baltic Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 13), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 314
- “metas”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė [Lithuanian etymological dictionary database], 2007–2012
References
edit- ^ Cvetko-Orešnik, Varja (1983) “Zu neueren Iranisch-Baltoslawischen isoglossen-Vorschlägen”, in Linguistica XXIII, page 210