Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/město

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 from Proto-Indo-European *moyth₂- (“to change place”)^[1] + *-to, substantivized from an earlier adjective. Cognate^[2] with Pashto مېشت (mēšt, “settled”) (< *máištah). Likely not a direct cognate, but still possibly related to Lithuanian maĩstas (“nourishment, food”).

The secondary sense “city, urban center” is a calque of Old High German stat < Proto-Germanic *stadiz (“stead, place”).

*mě̀sto n^[3][4][1]

1. (primary) place, location
2. (secondary, in Northern Slavic) city, town, settlement

• *městiti (“to move, to change location”)
  • *poměščenьje (“room, space”)
• *městьce, *městъko (diminutive)
• *městina (“space”)
• *městьnъ (“local”)
  • *městьnikъ (“local”)
  • *městьnostь (“vicinity”)
• *městovъ (“locative”)
• *vъměsto, *naměsto (“instead”); *vъměstě (“along with”) (adverbs)

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: мѣсто (město, “place, location”)
    • Middle Russian: мѣ́сто (mě́sto)
      • Russian: ме́сто (mésto, “place”)
        • → Finnish: mesta
    • Old Ruthenian: мѣ́сто (mě́sto, “city; place, location”)
      • Belarusian: ме́ста (mjésta, “city”) (semantic loan from Polish)
      • Carpathian Rusyn: мі́сто (místo, “city”) (regional, semantic loan from Polish)
      • Ukrainian: мі́сто (místo, “city”) (semantic loan from Polish)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic: мѣсто (město)
  • Bulgarian: мя́сто (mjásto)
  • Macedonian: ме́сто (mésto)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: мје̏сто, ме̏сто

    Latin script: mjȅsto, mȅsto

  • Slovene: mẹ́sto (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: město, miesto
    • Czech: město
    • Czech: místo
  • Old Polish: miasto (“city”)
    • Polish: miasto
    • Silesian: miasto
  • Old Slovak: mesto, miasto, miesto, místo
    • Pannonian Rusyn: место (mesto, “place, location”)
    • Slovak: mesto (“city”), miesto (“place, location”)
  • Pomeranian:
    • Kashubian: miasto (“city”)
    • Slovincian: mjastô (“city”)
  • Sorbian:
    • Lower Sorbian: město (“city”)
    • Upper Sorbian: město (“city”)

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “ме́сто”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1992), “*město”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 18 (*matoga – *mękyšьka), Moscow: Nauka, →ISBN, page 203
• Georgiev, Vladimir I., Duridanov, I. V., editors (1995), “място”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 4 (мѝнго² – па̀дам), Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov Pubg. House, →ISBN, page 446
• “miestas”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė [Lithuanian etymological dictionary database], 2007–2012