Reconstruction:Proto-Balto-Slavic/métas

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.

Commonly 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.

*métas n^[1] (Baltic)

1. time, period
2. (by extension) year

   Synonym: *gadás

S-stem, fixed accent.

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• *mátas (“measure, aim”) (possibly)
  • *matī́ˀtei, *matrī́ˀtei (“to look at, to watch”) (possibly)

• East Baltic: (reanalyzed as masc. o-stem)
  • Latvian: męts (“time”)
  • Lithuanian: mẽtas sg (“time”), mẽtai pl (“year”)
• West Baltic:
  • Old Prussian: mettan (interpreted as neut. o-stem), mette (“year”)
• Slavic:
  • ⇒? Proto-Slavic: *bezmetьnъ/*bezmětьnъ (“transcendental, idyllic, timeless”) (possibly)

• 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