Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/spōk
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Proto-Germanic
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Unknown. According to Klein, from a Proto-Indo-European source shared with Latvian spīgana (“dragon, witch”), Lithuanian spingėti (“to shine”), Old Prussian spanxti (“spark”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pāuǵ-, *(s)pāug- (“to shine, spark; brilliance, spectre”), though the vowels make this less plausible. It could otherwise have been borrowed from a substrate language in the area where Low German/Dutch was spoken. Compare *pūkô.
Noun
[edit]*spōk n
Descendants
[edit]- Old Frisian: spōk
- North Frisian: Spook
- Old Saxon: *spōk
- Old Dutch: *spōk
- Norwegian: spjok (< Middle Low German?)
- Swedish: spöke
References
[edit]- J. de Vries (1971), Nederlands Etymologisch Woordenboek, Leiden
- Klein, Dr. Ernest, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, Amsterdam: Elsevier Scientific Publishing Co., 1971.