Прасл. *mǫžь

Abstract

In the Etymological Dictionary of Slavic Languages (ESSJa 19: 24f.)O.N. Trubaéev reconstructs a Common Slavic root *mez- underlying Pol. miqzszy, Sloven. mjoyssi ‘thick, tight’, Ukr. mjaznuti intr. ‘thicken’ as related to OInd. Vedic mamhate tr. ‘to present, to offer’, intr. ‘to be ready (to offer)’, superlative mamhistha- ‘granting most abundantly, very liberal or generous; exceedingly abundant; quite ready for (dat.)’ (actually, there is, in Vedic, a comparative mamhiyas- too, precisely matching Slavic *meZbSbjb). We go a step further in supposing PIE *meng(h)- to be a reduplicated verbal stem of the adjective *megH.- ‘big’, and, consequently, the Slavic words cited above to go back to a primary verb *mezti, meze ‘to grow’ < PIE *me-mgH,-. The original meaning of OInd. mamhate would have been *‘to be grown up, 1.e. equal to something’, cf. also Avest. mqza.rayi- ‘offering by wealth’, or, rather, ‘augmenting the wealth’, and, for the semantic development of the same PIE root, lat. mactare ‘to offer’ < *‘to increase the deity by the offerings’. In this connection, OlInd. mahayati ‘exalts’ appears to be a causative to the primary verb cited above rather than a denominative derived from the adjective mah/(i)- ‘big’, as it is usually explained. A dissimilated form of the reduplicated stem *mV-mVgH,- may underlie SI. *monogs, Goth. manags ‘suf- ficient, large, many’, Olr. menic(c) ‘tight’, with a centum-reflex in Slavic, comparable to gord> besides zord», etc. Moreover, the word *mgzZb ‘man’, without a plausible etymology (the traditional derivation from PIE *manu- ‘man’ being structurally more than doubtful), may be explained as originally *‘a grownup man’, a postverbal o-grade derivative in -io from *mezti, comparable to *vod’s ‘guide; leader’ from vesti < *ved-ti; cf. Scythian (with 6 = SI. z < PIE *g) *mano(y)a- ‘male (of horses)’, presumedly re- flected in Scyth. PN Mavéacoc = * Manda-asa- ‘owner of male horses, stallions’, and, as a loanword, in Celt. *mandos > Lat. mannus ‘Gallic breed of small horses’, V Lat. *mandius > Rum. minz ‘foal’, It. manzo, Alb. méz.