Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/xmara

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

Alternative forms

• *xmura (probably)

Etymology

Uncertain:

• Per Vasmer, Trubachev (ESSJa): From contamination of original *xmura and *para (“vapor”) or *mara (“dusk, illusion, mirage”). The former is sometimes compared with Ancient Greek ἀμαυρός (amaurós, “dark, dull”).
• Per Gudkov (EIRJa): From dissimilation of an earlier *tьmora/*tьmara → *kmara → *xmara, cognate with Proto-Slavic *tьma (“darkness”).
• If the original meaning of the word was more concerned with the shape rather than with the hue of the cloud (as in English cloud < Old English clūd (“boulder, rocky mass”)), then possibly from an ō-grade of Proto-Indo-European *kh₂mer- (“to curve, to distort”). Compare Ancient Greek κᾰμᾰ́ρᾱ (kamárā, “vault, heap, mass”).

Noun

*xmàra f

1. dusky, dark billow
2. dark cloud

   Synonym: *tǫča

3. incoherent mass → swarm (of insects), covey (of birds), crowd (of people)

Inflection

Declension of *xmara (hard a-stem, accent paradigm a)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*xmara	*xmàrě	*xmàry
genitive	*xmàry	*xmàru	*xmàrъ
dative	*xmàrě	*xmàrama	*xmàramъ
accusative	*xmàrǫ	*xmàrě	*xmàry
instrumental	*xmàrojǫ, *xmàrǭ**	*xmàrama	*xmàramī
locative	*xmàrě	*xmàru	*xmàrasъ, *xmàraxъ*
vocative	*xmàro	*xmàrě	*xmàry

^* -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).

Related terms

• *xmurъ (“dusky, dim”)
• *xmariti, *xmuriti (“to dim”)
  • *xmarьnъ, *хmurьnъ (“murky, cloudy, gloomy”)
• *komъ (“lump, clod”) (possibly)

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: хма́ра (xmára), хмуры́на (xmurýna)
  • Russian: хма́ра (xmára), хму́ра (xmúra) (dialectal)
  • Ukrainian: хма́ра (xmára), хму́ра (xmúra)
• South Slavic:
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: тмо̀ра (possibly)

    Latin script: tmòra (possibly)

• West Slavic:
  • Czech: chmara, chmoura
  • Polish: chmara, chmura
  • Slovak: chmúra
  • Sorbian:
    • Upper Sorbian: khmura
    • Lower Sorbian: chmura

Further reading

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “хмара”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1981), “*xmara”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 8 (*xa – *jьvьlga), Moscow: Nauka, page 42