< Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European
Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/wed-
Proto-Indo-European
Etymology
Possibly related to Proto-Uralic *wete, the source of Finnish vesi and Hungarian víz. The nature of the relationship is unclear and controversial; the word may have been borrowed from Proto-Indo-European into Proto-Uralic, or the reverse. A minority of linguists suggests a common origin from an even earlier proto-language, Indo-Uralic, but this is not generally accepted.
In Proto-Indo-European, the active elemental *wed- (“water”) was contrasted with the passive *h₂ep- (“body of water”), similar to the opposition of the active "fire" *h₁n̥gʷnis with the passive *péh₂wr̥.
Root
*wed-
- water
Derived terms
Terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *wed-
- *wód-r̥ ~ *wéd-n̥-s (“water”)
- *wéd-os ~ *wéd-es-os (“water”)
- Old Armenian: գետ (get, “river”)
- *wēd-o-s (“wet”)
- Proto-Germanic: *wētaz
- *wed-ro-m
- Proto-Italic: *wedrom (“glass”)
- Latin: vitrum
- Proto-Italic: *wedrom (“glass”)
- *ud-ri-s
- Proto-Italic: *udri-
- Latin: uter (“leather bag”) (or via Etruscan from Ancient Greek ὑδρία (hudría))
- Proto-Italic: *udri-
- *ud-ró-s (“of water, aquatic”)
- *u-né-d-ti ~ *u-n-d-énti (nasal-infix present)
- Proto-Indo-Iranian: *unátˢti
- Proto-Indo-Aryan: *unátti
- Sanskrit: उनत्ति (unátti)
- Proto-Indo-Aryan: *unátti
- Proto-Indo-Iranian: *unátˢti
- *wod-sḱé-ti (o-grade sḱe-present)
- Proto-Germanic: *waskaną (“to wash”) (see there for further descendants)
- Unsorted formations:
- Illyrian:
- Illyrian: *adur
- Indo-Aryan
- Sanskrit: उद्र (udra, “water”)
- Illyrian:
Further reading
- Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, § 223.5