Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/aspō

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Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/aspō

This Proto-Germanic 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-Germanic

Etymology

From an apparent Proto-Indo-European *Hosp- (“aspen, poplar”), though the distribution is limited to northern languages spoken in regions where the tree inhabits. Indo-European cognates include Welsh aethnen, Latvian apse, Lithuanian ēpušė (dialectal ãpušė), Old Prussian abse and Proto-Slavic *osa (along with its suffixed variants *osìna and Southern *esìka), all meaning “aspen”.[1][2]

Noun

*aspō f[1]

1. aspen

Inflection

ō-stemDeclension of *aspō (ō-stem)
	singular	plural
nominative	*aspō	*aspôz
vocative	*aspō	*aspôz
accusative	*aspǭ	*aspōz
genitive	*aspōz	*aspǫ̂
dative	*aspōi	*aspōmaz
instrumental	*aspō	*aspōmiz

Descendants

• Proto-West Germanic: *aspu
  • Old English: æspe, æsp, æps
    • Middle English: aspe; aspen
      • English: asp; aspen
  • Old Saxon: *aspa
    • Middle Low German: aspe, espe, hespe
      • Low German: Äsp
  • Old Dutch: *aspa, *espa
    • Middle Dutch: espe
      • Dutch: esp
  • Old High German: aspa
    • Middle High German: aspe
      • German: Espe
• Old Norse: ǫsp
  • Icelandic: ösp
  • Faroese: øsp
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: osp; (dialectal) øsp
  • Norwegian Bokmål: osp
  • Swedish: asp
  • Danish: asp
    • Norwegian Bokmål: asp
• →? Proto-Finnic: *haapa (metathesized from *šapa?) (see there for further descendants)

Further reading

• Mallory, J. P.; Adams, D. Q., editors (1997), “Aspen, poplar”, in Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture, London, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, page 33

References

1. Kroonen, Guus (2013), “*aspō- ~ *apsō-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 39
2. Derksen, Rick (2008), “*osa; *osìna; *esìka”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 4), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 378