Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/kopriva

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

*kopriva – Urtica dioica

Etymology

By surface *koprъ (“dill”) +‎ *-ivъ +‎ *-a, probably from the original sense steaming, scalding found in the root *kopněti (“to melt (for snow), to hope”), *kypěti (“to boil up”), because of the burning feel on the human skin on touch of this plant. For similar semantic development, compare dial. Czech žeřica (“nettle”) (from Proto-Slavic *žarъ (“embers”)), German Brennnessel (“nettle”) (from German brennen (“to burn”)), Dutch brandnetel from branden (“to burn”), Latin ūrtīca from ūrere (“to burn”). Unlikely from the sense aroma applied in *koprъ and attested in the related lemmas Lithuanian kvãpas (“aroma”), Lithuanian kvėpti (“to smell, to breath”), since nettle does not have any particular smell.

A secondary reason of the relation to *koprъ (“dill”) may be the use of both as a food supplement.

The form *kropiva to which some forms point is modelled after *kropiti (“to besprinkle”) conceiving the crop’s conspicuous manner of distribution.

Noun

*kopriva f

1. stinging nettle

Alternative forms

• *kropiva

Inflection

Declension of *kopriva (hard a-stem)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*kopriva	*koprivě	*koprivy
genitive	*koprivy	*koprivu	*koprivъ
dative	*koprivě	*koprivama	*koprivamъ
accusative	*koprivǫ	*koprivě	*koprivy
instrumental	*koprivojǫ, *koprivǫ**	*koprivama	*koprivami
locative	*koprivě	*koprivu	*koprivasъ, *koprivaxъ*
vocative	*koprivo	*koprivě	*koprivy

^* -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

• *koprivьnъ (relational adjective)

Related terms

• *kopъtь (“steam, smoke”)
• *koprina (“silk”), *koprinica (“dodder”)
• *kopněti (“to melt, to hope”)
• *kypěti (“to boil, to vaporize”)

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: кропива (kropiva), крапива (krapiva)
    • Belarusian: крапіва́ (krapivá), but dialectally also крапі́ва (krapíva)
    • Russian: крапи́ва (krapíva)
    • Ukrainian: кропива́ (kropyvá), but dialectally also кропи́ва (kropýva)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Old Cyrillic script: коприва (kopriva)

    Glagolitic script: ⰽⱁⱂⱃⰻⰲⰰ (kopriva)

  • Bulgarian: копри́ва (kopríva), dial. покри́ва (pokríva)
  • Macedonian: ко́прива (kópriva)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: ко̀прива

    Latin script: kòpriva

  • Slovene: kopríva, formerly dialectally also kropíva
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: kopřiva
    • Czech: kopřiva
  • Polabian: ťüpraivă
  • Old Polish: koprzywa
    • Polish: pokrzywa
      • Polish: pokrzywa
        • → Yiddish: פּאָקשיװע (pokshive), פּאָקזשיװע (pokzhive)
  • Old Slovak: kopriwa
    • Slovak: kopriva (dialectal)
  • Sorbian:
    • Upper Sorbian: kopřiwa
    • Lower Sorbian: kopśiwa

Further reading

• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1984), “*kopriva”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 11 (*konьcь – *kotьna(ja)), Moscow: Nauka, page 25
• Georgiev, Vladimir I., editor (1979), “коприва, покрива”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volumes 2 (и – крепя̀), Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Pubg. House, page 619