Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/debelъ

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.

Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeb- (“fat, heavy, thick”) + *-elъ, presumably cognate with Latvian depsis (“chunky boy”), Old Prussian debīkan / debica (“big”), Proto-Germanic *dapraz (“rigid”). The lack of traces of Winter's law in this case is problematic. The suffix is identical to the one found in Lithuanian di̇̀delis (“large, robust”).

*dȅbelъ

1. fat

• *debelьstvo, *debelina (abstract nouns)

• *deblo (“chunk of wood”)

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: дзябёлы (dzjabjóly)
  • Russian: дебе́лый (debélyj)
  • Ukrainian: дебе́лий (debélyj)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:
    • Russian Church Slavonic: дебелъ (debelŭ)
  • Bulgarian: дебе́л (debél)
  • Macedonian: де́бел (débel)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: дѐбео

    Latin script: dèbeo

    • → Hungarian: debella (fat woman)
  • Slovene: débeł (tonal orthography)

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “дебе́лый”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка (in Russian), Moscow: Progress