Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/něga

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

Etymology

Probably deverbal from *něgati.

Noun

*něga f

1. care, nurture
2. delight, tenderness

Declension

Declension of *něga (hard a-stem)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*něga	*nědzě	*něgy
genitive	*něgy	*něgu	*něgъ
dative	*nědzě	*něgama	*něgamъ
accusative	*něgǫ	*nědzě	*něgy
instrumental	*něgojǫ, *něgǫ**	*něgama	*něgami
locative	*nědzě	*něgu	*něgasъ, *něgaxъ*
vocative	*něgo	*nědzě	*něgy

^* -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).

Derived terms

• *Něgomirъ
• *Něgoslavъ
• *Něgovojь
• *Něgošь
• *Něgota
• *něžьnъ (“tender”)
• *něžьnostь (“tenderness”)
• *něgati, *něžiti (“to tender”)
• *něgovati (“to caress”)

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: нѣга (něga)
    • Belarusian: нега (njeha)
    • Russian: не́га (néga)
    • Ukrainian: нíга (níha)
• South Slavic:
  • Church Slavonic: нѣга (něga)
  • Bulgarian: нѐга (nèga) (poetic); Нѣга (Něga), Ня́га (Njága) (personal name)
  • Macedonian: нега (nega)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: њега, нега

    Latin script: njega, nega

  • Slovene: néga
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: něhа (dated)
  • Old Polish: Niega (personal name)
  • Slovak: neha

Further reading

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