Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/meďu

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

Fossilized from the locative dual of *meďa (“border; boundary”); literally, "in the (two) borders".

Preposition

*meďu

1. between, among [+instrumental]

Related terms

• *meďi, a form used in West Slavic
• *meďa

Descendants

West Slavic languages continue *meďi instead.

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: між (miž), памі́ж (pamíž), про́меж (prómjež)
  • Russian: меж (mež), межу (mežu) (dialectal or obsolete), проме́ж (proméž)
  • Carpathian Rusyn: меж (mež), межи (mežy), змежи (zmežy), помежи (pomežy), спомежи (spomežy), испомежи (yspomežy)
  • Ukrainian: між (miž), меж (mež) (dialectal), ме́жи́ (méžý), по́між (pómiž, “in a row, near”) (dialectal), помі́ж (pomíž), поме́жи (poméžy), про́між (prómiž)
    • Ukrainian: з-між (z-miž), з-по́між (z-pómiž), з-промі́ж (z-promíž)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic: междоу (meždu), междю (meždju)
    • → Russian: ме́жду (méždu), проме́жду (proméždu)
  • Bulgarian: между́ (meždú)
  • Macedonian: меѓу (meǵu)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: ме̏ђу

    Latin script: mȅđu

  • Slovene: med

Further reading

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “ме́жду”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress