Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/kwabbā

This Proto-West Germanic 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 Proto-Indo-European *gʷeh₂bʰ- (“to sink, submerge, dive”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) Another theory by Kroonen derives the word from a Proto-Indo-European *gʷeh₁bʰ- (“soft mass”) and connects Old Armenian կաւ (kaw, “clay”),^[1] though this is uncertain.

*kwabbā f

1. anything soft and firmless; a squishy lump, mass, or lobe; flab
2. soggy ground
3. (zoology) a bottom-dwelling fish (e.g. burbot); tadpole

• *kwabbag

• Old English: *cwabbe
  • Middle English: quabbe
    • English: quab, quob, possibly quag
    • → Latin: quabba
• Old Frisian: *kwabbe, *quabbe
  • Saterland Frisian: Kwabbe
  • West Frisian: kwabbe, kwab
• Old Saxon: *kwabba, *kwappa
  • Middle Low German: quappe, quabbe
    • German Low German: Quabb, Quebbe (“marshland”)
    • → Old Danish: kvabbe
    • → Old Swedish: qvappa
      • Swedish: kvabba
• ⇒ Old Saxon: kwappia, quappia, *quabbia, *quebbia
  • Middle Low German: quebbe, queb, quobbe, quöbbe f or n
• Old Dutch: *kwabba, *quappa
  • Middle Dutch: quabbe, quappe
    • Dutch: kwab
• Old High German: kwappa, quappa; kwappo, quappo m
  • Middle High German: quappe, kape, kope, quabbe
    • German: Quappe, Quabbe