Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/greti

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.

Proto-Slavic

Etymology

From earlier *grebtì, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *grebtei, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ-. Cognate with Lithuanian grė́bti (“to seize, to rob, to rake”), Latvian grebt (“to seize, to scrape, to excavate”), Sanskrit गृह्णाति (gṛhṇā́ti), गृभ्णाति (gṛbhṇā́ti, “to seize, to hold, to take”), Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (graban, “to dig”), English grab. Per Derksen, the acute vowel of Lithuanian grė́bti is analogical after gróbti (“to seize”).

Note the development of the infinitive: *grebtì > *gretì (by regular sound change) > *grestì (by analogy with other consonant-stem verbs, most of which have infinitives in -*sti or -*zti) > *grebstì (by analogy with the stem *greb-, only in some languages).

Verb

*gretì impf

1. to dig, to scrape
2. to rake

Inflection

Derived terms

• *grebenь (“comb”)
• *gribati (“to dig, to scrape?”) (iterative)
• *grabiti (“to grab, to seize”)
• *grobъ (“grave”)
• *grěblo, *grabľa (“rake”)

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: грети (greti), грести (gresti) (both attested only from the 14th century)
    • Belarusian: грэ́бці (hrébci)
    • Russian: грести́ (grestí)
    • Ukrainian: гребти́ (hrebtý)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Cyrillic: грети (greti)

    Glagolitic:

  • Bulgarian: греба́ (grebá)
  • Macedonian: гребе (grebe)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: грѐпсти

    Latin script: grèpsti

  • Slovene: grébsti (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: hřésti, hřébsti, ⇒ pohřésti, ⇒ pohřbieti
    • Czech: hřésti (obsolete), hřébsti (obsolete), hřběti (obsolete)
  • Kashubian: grzebac
  • Old Polish: grześć
    • Polish: grzebać
  • Slovak: hriebsť

Further reading

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “гребу́”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Chernykh, P. Ja. (1993) “грести́”, in Историко-этимологический словарь русского языка [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), 3rd edition, volume 1 (а – пантомима), Moscow: Russian Lang., →ISBN, page 215
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1980), “*grebti”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 7 (*golvačь – *gyžati), Moscow: Nauka, page 109

References