Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/basnь

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.

Action noun of *bati, *bajati (“to tell, to narate”) +‎ *-snь, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to speak, to tell”). Akin to Latin fābula (“narative”), Proto-Germanic *bōniz (“prayer”) and formally related to Ancient Greek φάσμα (phásma, “apparition, phantom”) (from another meaning of the same PIE root).

*bàsnь f

1. tale, poem, fable (succinct instructive story)
2. (rare) spell, incantation

• *bàsňa (ja-stem)
• *basma (in Serbo-Croatian)

• *basnьnikъ (“poet, fabler”)
• *basnica (“narative”)

• *badli (“witchdoctor, spiritual healer”)
• *bajьka (“fable”)

• East Slavic:
  • Russian: баснь (basnʹ) (archaic), ба́сня (básnja)
  • Ukrainian: ба́сні (básni)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Old Cyrillic script: баснь (basnĭ)

    Glagolitic script: ⰱⰰⱄⱀⱐ (basnĭ)

  • Bulgarian: ба́сня (básnja), ба́сница (básnica)
  • Macedonian: басна (basna)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: ба̏сна

    Latin script: bȁsna

  • Slovene: bȃsen (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: básn
    • Czech: báseň
  • Old Polish: baśń
    • Polish: baśń
  • Slovak: báseň
  • Sorbian:
    • Lower Sorbian: basń
    • Upper Sorbian: basń, basnica

• Non-Slavic:
  • → Romanian: basm

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “ба́сня”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1974), “*basnь”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков (in Russian), numbers 1 (*a – *besědьlivъ), Moscow: Nauka, page 161
• Georgiev, Vladimir I., editor (1971), “басня”, in Български етимологичен речник (in Bulgarian), volume 1 (А – З), Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Pubg. House, →ISBN, page 35