Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/ambō

This Proto-West Germanic 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-West Germanic

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *ambô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃émbʰō ~ *h₃m̥bʰnés, from the root *h₃enbʰ- (“navel, hub”). Formal cognate with Latin umbō.

Noun

*ambō m

1. belly

1. Synonyms: *balgi, *hrif, *kweþu, *magō, *wambu

Declension

Masculine an-stem
	Singular
Nominative	*ambō
Genitive	*ambini, *amban
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	*ambō	*amban
Accusative	*amban	*amban
Genitive	*ambini, *amban	*ambanō
Dative	*ambini, *amban	*ambum
Instrumental	*ambini, *amban	*ambum

Descendants

• Old Saxon: *ambo (attested as ambon (plural))
  • Middle Low German: amme
• Old High German: ambo, amban (< *ambanaz), ambana (< *ambanō) (secondary thematicization)
  • German: Amen (Hessian)

Further reading

• Kroonen, Guus (2013) “*amban-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 24