Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/maca

This Proto-Slavic entry contains reconstructed words 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

Likely from onomatopoeia.

Compare German Matz (“pussy, pussycat, female cat”), Mietzchen (“pussy, kitty”), French matou (“tomcat”).

Noun

*maca f

pussy, pussycat, female cat

Inflection

Declension of *maca (soft a-stem)

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*maca	*maci	*macę̇
Accusative	*macǫ	*maci	*macę̇
Genitive	*macę̇	*macu	*macь
Locative	*maci	*macu	macasъ, macaxъ^*
Dative	*maci	*macama	*macamъ
Instrumental	macejǫ, macǫ^**	*macama	*macami
Vocative	*mace	*maci	*macę̇

^* -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

*macę, *mačę (“kitten, kitty”)
*macьkъ / *macьka / *mačьkъ / *mačьka
*mačerъ (“cat”)
*mačęťь (“cat's, feline, catlike”)
*mačьjь (“cat's, feline, catlike”)

Descendants

South Slavic:
- Bulgarian: ма́ца (máca)
- Macedonian: маца (maca)
- Serbo-Croatian:
  Cyrillic: ма́ца
  
  Latin: máca
- Slovene: máca

West Slavic: — (see derived terms)

Other:
- → Albanian: matš, matše
- → Turkish: maçka, maçi
- → Hungarian: macska
- → Greek: μάτσιου (mátsiou)

References

Trubačóv, Oleg, editor (1990), “*maca”, in Etimologičeskij slovarʹ slavjanskix jazykov [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), volume 17, Moscow: Nauka, page 110

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.