Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/vydra

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 *ū́ˀdrāˀ (“otter”), from Proto-Indo-European *udréh₂ (“otter”), the feminine form of *udrós (“of water, aquatic”), from the root *wed- (“water”).

Noun

*vỳdra f

1. otter

Inflection

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

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*vỳdra	*vỳdrě	*vỳdry
genitive	*vỳdry	*vỳdru	*vỳdrъ
dative	*vỳdrě	*vỳdrama	*vỳdramъ
accusative	*vỳdrǫ	*vỳdrě	*vỳdry
instrumental	*vỳdrojǫ, *vỳdrǭ**	*vỳdrama	*vỳdramī
locative	*vỳdrě	*vỳdru	*vỳdrasъ, *vỳdraxъ*
vocative	*vỳdro	*vỳdrě	*vỳdry

^* -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).

Related terms

• *vodà (“water”)
• *vědro (“bucket”)
• *vedrъ (“clear”)
  • *vedro (“nice weather”)

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: вꙑдра (vydra)
    • Old Ruthenian: вы́дра (výdra)
      • Belarusian: вы́дра (výdra)
      • Ukrainian: ви́дра (výdra)
    • Russian: вы́дра (výdra)
    • → Yiddish: ווידרע (vidre)
  • Old Novgorodian: воудра (vudra) (dialectal)
    • → Russian: вудра́ (vudrá) (Pskov dialect)
• South Slavic:
  • Bulgarian: ви́дра (vídra)
  • Macedonian: видра (vidra)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: ви̏дра

    Latin script: vȉdra

  • Slovene: vīdra (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: vydra
  • Kashubian: wëdra
  • Polish: wydra
  • Slovak: vydra
  • Sorbian:
    • Upper Sorbian: wudra
    • Lower Sorbian: wudra

• Non-Slavic:
  • → Albanian: vidër
  • → Greek: βίδρα (vídra)
  • → Hungarian: vidra
  • → Romanian: vidră

Further reading

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “выдра”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Chernykh, P. Ja. (1993) “выдра”, in Историко-этимологический словарь русского языка [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), 3rd edition, volume 1 (а – пантомима), Moscow: Russian Lang., →ISBN, page 173
• Šanskij, N. M. (2004) “выдра”, in Školʹnyj etimologičeskij slovarʹ russkovo jazyka [School Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Drofa