Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/věščьba

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 *věščь (“proficient, foretelling”) +‎ *-ьba.

Noun

*věščьba f

1. prophecy, divination (Northern Slavic)
2. practice, drill (South Slavic)

Declension

Declension of *věščьba (hard a-stem)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*věščьba	*věščьbě	*věščьby
genitive	*věščьby	*věščьbu	*věščьbъ
dative	*věščьbě	*věščьbama	*věščьbamъ
accusative	*věščьbǫ	*věščьbě	*věščьby
instrumental	*věščьbojǫ, *věščьbǫ**	*věščьbama	*věščьbami
locative	*věščьbě	*věščьbu	*věščьbasъ, *věščьbaxъ*
vocative	*věščьbo	*věščьbě	*věščьby

^* -asъ is the expected Balto-Slavic form but is found only in some Old Czech documents; -axъ is found everywhere else and is formed by analogy with other locative plurals in -xъ.
^** The second form occurs in languages that contract early across /j/ (e.g. Czech), while the first form occurs in languages that do not (e.g. Russian).

Derived terms

• *věščьbati (“to practice”) (South Slavic)

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Old Belarusian: вѣщба (věščba)
  • Russian: вещба́ (veščbá) (dialectal)
  • Old Ukrainian: вѣщба (viščba)
• South Slavic:
  • Macedonian: вежба (vežba)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: ве̏жба, вје̏жба

    Latin script: vȅžba, vjȅžba

• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: věščba
    • Czech: věštba
  • Old Polish: wieszczba
    • Polish: wieszczba
  • Slovak: veštba

Further reading

• Anikin, A. E. (2013) “вещба”, in Русский этимологический словарь (in Russian), issue 7 (вершь – вняться), Moscow: Russian Language Institute, →ISBN, page 91