Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/orba

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.

From *õrbъ +‎ *-a.

*ōrbà f

1. female equivalent of *õrbъ (“servant, slave”)

Note that the descendants exhibit a metathesis of the liquid r (*or- > ro-; ra-):

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: роба (roba)
    • Old Ruthenian: ро́ба (róba)
      • Belarusian: ро́ба (róba) (obsolete)
      • Ukrainian: ро́ба (róba, “a hardworking woman”)
  • Old Novgorodian: роба (roba)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Old Cyrillic script: раба (raba)

    Glagolitic script: ⱃⰰⰱⰰ (raba)

    • → Old East Slavic: раба (raba)
      • Old Ruthenian: раба́ (rabá)
        • Belarusian: раба́ (rabá)
        • Ukrainian: раба́ (rabá)
      • Russian: раба́ (rabá)
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: roba (“female servant or slave, wife”)
    • Czech: roba (“wife”) (dialectal)
  • Old Polish: roba (“female servant or slave, wife, disorderly woman, sow”)
    • Polish: roba (dialectal or obsolete)
  • Slovak: roba (dialectal)

• Trubachyov, O., Zhuravlyov, A. F., editors (2005), “*orbъ/*orba”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков (in Russian), numbers 32 (*obžьnъ – *orzbotati), Moscow: Nauka, →ISBN, page 131