Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/ǫpyrь

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
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

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

Uncertain. Skok gives two hypotheses:

  1. From a northern Turkic language, in the form ubyr or ubyrly (witch). Compare Tatar убыр (ubır, vampiric witch), Chuvash вупӑр (vup̬ăr, vampire), Turkish obur (glutton), all from Proto-Turkic *ōpur, possibly from Proto-Turkic *ōp- (to swallow, gulp down).[1] Vasmer finds this phonetically doubtful.[2]
  2. A Slavic construction, from *u- +‎ *pyřь, “flyer” with a privative prefix. Compare *netopyřь. According to this hypothesis *ǫpyrь could have originated as a taboo for *vьlkolakъ (cf. vukodlak).

Mel’nyčuk offers a different explanation, a Slavic construction from *ǫ- +‎ *pyr-, “not burned”, with a privative prefix attached to a root meaning “fire”. The word would then indicate an uncremated corpse. He also lists alternative suggestions that others had proposed: a possible connection with *pyřь (flyer), as above; or from *vъ- +‎ *pěrь as a coinage related to vrěpiti (“to cling”), supposedly because a vampire bites and clings to its victims.

Mel’nyčuk further proposes that the forms with initial vam- were derived by way of Old Church Slavonic *вѫпиръ (*vǫpirŭ) with prothetic *в-, borrowed into Byzantine Greek as βαμπύρος (bampúros) and then borrowed back into the South Slavic languages.

Noun

[edit]

*ǫpyrь m

  1. vampire

Declension

[edit]

Descendants

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ vampire”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
  2. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “упырь”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress

Further reading

[edit]
  • Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “упы́рь”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
  • Skok, Petar (1973) “Proto-Slavic/ǫpyrь”, in Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika [Etymological Dictionary of the Croatian or Serbian Language] (in Serbo-Croatian), volumes 3 (poni² – Ž), Zagreb: JAZU, page 564
  • Melnychuk, O. S., editor (1982–2012), “Proto-Slavic/ǫpyrь”, in Етимологічний словник української мови [Etymological Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language] (in Ukrainian), Kyiv: Naukova Dumka