Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/vapa

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.

Disputed:

• Considered a loanword by early scholars, possibly borrowed from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hā́ps (“water”) with prothetic *v- due to word-initial sandhi (similar to Proto-Slavic *vatra (“fire, torch”) < Proto-Iranian *HáHtr̥š (“fire”)). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep-, whence native Proto-Slavic *Opava (hydronym, attested as Opava in modern Czechia), Old Prussian apē (“river”), possibly also *opica (“monkey”).
• More likely inherited (Trautmann, Vasmer), cognate with Lithuanian ùpė (“river”), Latvian upe (“river”), Sudovian upa (“river”), perhaps from Proto-Balto-Slavic *wṓps ~ *upís. Further akin to Sanskrit वापी (vā́pī, “pond, pool”) and probably Hittite (wappu-, “riverbank”) (attested predominantly in gen. wappuwaš). Zero grade froms attested in dialectal Bulgarian and in toponyms - cf. Russian Вопь (Vopʹ, “Vop river”) < *Vъpь. In view of the Anatolian data, PIE origin could be from tentative *wep- (“to cast, to pour, to permeate”) (per Pokorny), whence also Old Prussian wupyan (“cloud”), Proto-Iranian *wafrah (“snow”). Mallory & Adams reconstruct instead Proto-Indo-European *weh₂p- for the Indo-Aryan data (formally incompatible with Hittite). On the later, Witczak^[1] suggests possible fossilized compound *h₂we- (“away, off”) +‎ *h₂ep- originally conveying contrast: off + flowing water → stagnant water.

In either case, *vapa may have been a functional counterpart (originally, of common gender) to substantive *voda (originally, neuter).

*vapa f

1. body of water (pool, pond, lake), standing water

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: вапа (vapa)
    • Russian: ва́па (vápa, “lake”)
    • Ukrainian: ва́па (vápa, “boggy place”)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic: вапа (vapa)
  • Bulgarian: ва́па (vápa), въ́па (vǎ́pa, “depression, sinkhole”) (dialectal)
  • Slovene: vápa (“puddle”) (tonal orthography) (colloquial)

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “вапа”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Georgiev, Vladimir I., editor (1971), “вапа”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 1 (А – З), Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Pubg. House, →ISBN, page 118
• Snoj, Marko (2016) “vapa”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar [Slovenian Etymology Dictionary] (in Slovene), 3rd edition, https://fran.si

Collective of *vapь (“dye”) +‎ *-a. Possibly related to Etymology 1 (Preobražensky, Brückner, Snoj).

*vapa f

1. Alternative form of *vapь (“dye”)

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: вапа (vapa)
    • Russian: ва́па (vápa)

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “вапа”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress