Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/žito

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.

Proto-Slavic

Etymology

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *géiˀta, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃tom, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃-.

Baltic cognates include Old Prussian geytye, geits (“bread”).

Indo-European cognates include Irish biathaim, Welsh bwyd (“food, meat”).

Noun

*žìto n

1. grain, corn

Inflection

Declension of *žìto (hard o-stem, accent paradigm a)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*žìto	*žìtě	*žìta
genitive	*žìta	*žìtu	*žìtъ
dative	*žìtu	*žìtoma	*žìtomъ
accusative	*žìto	*žìtě	*žìta
instrumental	*žìtъmь, *žìtomь*	*žìtoma	*žìtȳ
locative	*žìtě	*žìtu	*žìtě̄xъ
vocative	*žìto	*žìtě	*žìta

^* -ъmь in North Slavic, -omь in South Slavic.

Related terms

• *gojь
• *žiti (“to live”)
• *živica
• *životъ (“life”)
• *živъ (“alive”)

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: жы́та (žýta)
  • Russian: жи́то (žíto)
  • Old Ukrainian: жито (žito)
    • Ukrainian: жи́то (žýto)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic: жито (žito)
  • Bulgarian: жи́то (žíto)
  • Macedonian: жи́то (žíto)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Latin script: žȉto

    Cyrillic script: жи̏то

  • Slovene: žito
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: žito
    • Czech: žito (“rye”)
      • Moravian (Mistřice): žito (“wheat”)
  • Kashubian: żëto
  • Polabian: zaitü
  • Old Polish: żyto
    • Polish: żyto
  • Slovak: žito
  • Sorbian:
    • Upper Sorbian: žito
    • Lower Sorbian: žyto

References

• Derksen, Rick (2008) “*žìto”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 4), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 563
• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “жито”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress