Reconstruction:Proto-Balto-Slavic/brénˀstei

This Proto-Balto-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.

Per Derksen, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrend-. Related to Old Irish bruinne (“bosom”), possibly Latin frons (“bough”) (gen. frondis), Old Norse brant (“steep”).

Formal similarities with Proto-Slavic *broněti (“to saturate, to ripen”) (whence Russian броне́ть (bronétʹ), Ukrainian броні́ти (broníty)), ocassionally noted within the literature, are regarded as fortuitous. The later is most likely an essive deadjectival from *bro(d)nъ (“buckskin, light (of coloration)”).

*brénˀstei

1. (in Baltic) to ripen, to mature

Fixed accent, with two interchangeable paradigms attested:

• te-present, ā-preterite: Lithuanian brénsta (3p., pres.), bréndo (3p., pret.); Latvian briêstu (1p., pres.), briêdu (1p., pret.)
• je-present, ē-preterite: Lithuanian bréndžia (3p., pres.), bréndė (3p., pret.); Latvian briêžu (1p., pres.), briêdu (1p., pret.)

• *brínˀstei (“to swell, to ripen”)
• *branˀdús (“thick, matured”)
  • *branˀdḗˀtei (essive)

• East Baltic^[1][2]:
  • Latvian: briêst
  • Lithuanian: brę́sti
• West Baltic:
  • ⇒ Old Prussian: pobrendints (“made difficult”) (nt-participle)
• Slavic:
  • ⇒ Proto-Slavic: *abrędъ (perhaps related to *brědъ (“fruit”))

• “bręsti”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė [Lithuanian etymological dictionary database], 2007–2012
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1974), “*abrędъ”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 1 (*a – *besědьlivъ), Moscow: Nauka, page 49