верста

Russian

Etymology

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Inherited from Old East Slavic вьрста (vĭrsta), from Proto-Slavic *vȇrstъ. Cognate with Ukrainian верства́ (verstvá), Old East Slavic вьрста (vĭrsta, “age, couple, age-mate, verst (measure of length)”), Old Church Slavonic врьста (vrĭsta, “age”), Bulgarian връст (vrǎst, “age”), Serbo-Croatian вр́ста (“row, type”), Slovene vŕsta (“row, string, type, age”) (tonal orthography), vȓst (“row, type”) (tonal orthography), Czech vrstva (“layer”), Slovak vrstva, Polish warstwa (“row, layer”), Upper Sorbian woršta. Cognate with Russian верте́ть (vertétʹ, “to turn”); per Vasmer, the initial meaning was "turning over of a plow". Further cognate with Lithuanian var̃stas (“verst, distance plowed at one time in one direction”) (also varsnà), participial vir̃stas, Oscan vorsus (“measure of arable land”, literally “turning over”), Latin versus (earlier vorsus), Sanskrit वृत्त (vṛttá, “round, twisted”). Compare све́рстник (svérstnik, “coeval, age-mate”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [vʲɪrˈsta]

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

верста́ • (verstá) f inan (genitive версты́, nominative plural вёрсты, genitive plural вёрст)

1. (dated) verst (unit of length equal to 1,066.8 m), used in many expressions

   За версту́ ви́дно (слы́шно, па́хнет)

   Za verstú vídno (slýšno, páxnet)

   One can see (hear, smell) (from) a mile away

   обходи́ть за версту́ (idiom) ― obxodítʹ za verstú ― avoid like a leper

2. (colloquial) kilometre

Declension

Declension of верста́ (inan fem-form hard-stem accent-d) 

	singular	plural
nominative	верста́ verstá	вёрсты vjórsty
genitive	версты́ verstý	вёрст vjórst
dative	версте́ versté	вёрстам vjórstam
accusative	версту́ verstú	вёрсты vjórsty
instrumental	версто́й, версто́ю verstój, verstóju	вёрстами vjórstami
prepositional	версте́ versté	вёрстах vjórstax

Derived terms

• верстово́й (verstovój)
• верстоме́р (verstomér)
• многовёрстный (mnogovjórstnyj)

Related terms

• верста́ть impf (verstátʹ), сверста́ть pf (sverstátʹ)
• навёрстывать impf (navjórstyvatʹ), наверста́ть pf (naverstátʹ)
• верста́льщик m (verstálʹščik)
• вёрстка f (vjórstka)

References

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “верста”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress