paukštis

Lithuanian Wikipedia has an article on:

paukštis

Wikipedia ^lt

• (dialectal) paukštė

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *put-, *pout-; compare Latvian putns < *put-inas (compare Lithuanian dialectal pùtinas (“rooster”)); Proto-Slavic *pъtákъ. The Lithuanian form can be explained as o-grade *pout- + -tis, with a prothetic -k-. For similar examples, compare šaukštas (“spoon”) < *šaud-tas, krikstas (“baptism”) < *krist-, pūkšlė (“hives”) < *pūt-slė.

The origin of the Balto-Slavic root is unclear. Smoczynski originally proposed a connection with Proto-Indo-European *put- (“child, young”); compare Latin putus (“boy”), Sanskrit पुत्र (putrá-, “son, young of an animal”), पोत (póta​, “young of an animal”), Avestan 𐬞𐬎𐬚𐬭𐬀- (puθra-, “son”). This derivation would imply that the Balto-Slavic term must originally have meant "chick"; compare dialectal paũtas (“egg”), putýtis (“chick”).^[1] However, he seems to have scrapped this etymology later on in favor of analyzing paũkštis as deriving from an earlier *paukstis < *paustis, which would be a nominal derivation from a hypothetical *paustytis (“to hatch from an egg”) < *paus-styti < *paut-styti, a denominal verb from paũtas (“egg”).^[2] In this theory, Smoczynski takes paũtas as being from the o-grade of the same root that gives pū̃sti (“to blow”), with an original meaning of "something bloated".^[3]

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɒʊk.ʃtʲɪs/

paũkštis m (plural paũkščiai) stress pattern 2

1. bird (any animal of the subclass (formerly usually class) Aves)
2. (colloquial) a cunning, untrustworthy person