Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/divizna

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

*divizna – Verbascum densiflorum

Etymology

The form *divina for this plant seems secondary by relation to the suffix *-ina, somewhat interchangeable with *-izna, *divina literally meaning any animal or plant product of wild (*divъ) origin; a contamination with *devęsilъ is also evident, looking at the Slovak form. A derivation from *divъ (“wild”) is uncertain, though tempting. The word is recorded in Dacian as διέσεμα, a borrowing from which has been considered; it is also attested, however, in Lithuanian devynspė͂kė, devynjėgė, still meaning the same plant, but reconstructions for Proto-Indo-European are too daring because of the limited distribution of the plant name.

Noun

*divizna f

1. mullein (Verbascum spp.)

   Synonym: *lopěnъ

Inflection

Declension of *divizna (hard a-stem)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*divizna	*divizně	*divizny
genitive	*divizny	*diviznu	*diviznъ
dative	*divizně	*diviznama	*diviznamъ
accusative	*diviznǫ	*divizně	*divizny
instrumental	*diviznojǫ, *diviznǫ**	*diviznama	*diviznami
locative	*divizně	*diviznu	*diviznasъ, *diviznaxъ*
vocative	*divizno	*divizně	*divizny

^* -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).

Descendants

all have been checked and have the meaning Verbascum

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: дзiвáнна (dzivánna), dialectally also дзiвана (dzivana), дзiвена (dzivjena)
  • Russian: дива́нка (divánka), дивена (divena), дивина (divina) (all only regionally, and the stress is not told save for the first in Даль)
  • Ukrainian: дивина́ (dyvyná) (standard stress, dialectally also диви́на (dyvýna))
• South Slavic:
  • Bulgarian: диви́зна (divízna), диви́зма (divízma) (of limited currency)
  • Macedonian: дивизма (divizma)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: дивѝзма

    Latin script: divìzma

• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: divizna
    • Czech: divizna
  • Polish: dziewanna, dialectally dziwizna
  • Slovak: divizna, displaced by now standard divozel
  • Sorbian:

    Upper Sorbian: dźiwizna

References

• Anikin, A. E. (2019) “дивена”, in Русский этимологический словарь [Russian Etymological Dictionary] (in Russian), numbers 13 (два – дигло), Moscow: Russian Language Institute, →ISBN, page 357
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1978), “*divizna”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 5 (*dělo – *dьržьlь), Moscow: Nauka, page 33