Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/Semь

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.

Probably an Iranian origin, borrowed from Scythian, further from Proto-Iranian *cyaHmáh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ćyaHmás (“black”), originally meaning “black, dark river”.

Cognates include Avestan 𐬯𐬁𐬨𐬀 (sāma, “black”), Sanskrit श्याम (śyāmá, “black, dark-coloured, dark blue”).

*Semь m

1. Seym (a river in Russia and Ukraine)

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: Семь (Semĭ), Сѣмь (Sěmĭ)
    • Old Ruthenian: Семь (Semʹ), Семъ (Sem)
      • Belarusian: Сейм (Sjejm)
      • Ukrainian: Сейм (Sejm)
    • Russian: Семь (Semʹ), Сеимъ (Seim), Сеймъ (Sejm) (Pre-reform orthography (1918))
      • Russian: Сейм (Sejm); Семь (Semʹ), Сем (Sem) (Kursk subdialects)

• Toporov, Vladimir, Trubachyov, Oleg (1962) Лингвистический анализ гидронимов Верхнего Поднепровья‎ (in Russian), Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences, page 226
• Stryzhak, O. S., editor (1985), “Семь”, in Етимологічний словник літописних географічних назв Південної Русі [Etymological Dictionary of Chronicle Geographical Names of Southern Rus'] (in Ukrainian), Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, page 141