Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/niknǫti
Proto-Slavic
Etymology
Per Derksen, from the root of *nicь (“lying face downwards”), from Proto-Indo-European *ni-h₃kʷo- with the Slavic progressive palatalization, from the root *ni-. Cognate with Sanskrit नि (ni, “downwards”), नीचा (nīcā́, “downwards”).
Per Vasmer, there are two etymologically separate verbs here, one with the approximate meaning "to droop, to wilt" and coming from the root of *nicь as above, and another with the approximate meaning "to arise, to penetrate" from a different root. The latter is cognate with Lithuanian nìkti (“to glow”) (1sg. ninkù, 1sg. past nikaũ), įnìkti į̃ dárbą (“to plunge headlong into work”), apnìkti (“to attack”), etc., as well as Old Prussian neikaut (“to walk, to wander”), Latvian niktiês (“to impose oneself”), nikns (“fierce, wicked”), nàiks (“fierce, wicked, angry, quick”), and Ancient Greek νεῖκος (neîkos, “quarrel, dispute”), νεικέω (neikéō, “to quarrel, to attack”), νῑ́κη (nī́kē, “victory”), νῑκάω (nīkáō, “to win”).
Inflection
- 1sg. *niknǫ
This verb needs an inflection-table template.
Related terms
Descendants
- Church Slavonic: никнути (niknuti, “to appear, to arise”) (Russian)
- East Slavic:
- South Slavic:
- Bulgarian: ни́кна (níkna, “to germinate, to sprout”)
- Macedonian: никне (nikne, “to grow, to come”)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: ни̏кнути (“to appear, to arise”), 1sg. ни̏кне̄м
- Latin: nȉknuti (“to appear, to arise”), 1sg. nȉknēm
- Chakavian (Vrgada): nȉknut (“to appear, to arise”), 2sg. nȉkneš
- Slovene: níkniti (“to germinate, to sprout, to disappear”) (tonal orthography), 1sg. nȋknem (tonal orthography)
References
- Černyx, P. Ja. (1999), “ни́кнуть”, in Istoriko-etimologičeskij slovarʹ russkovo jazyka [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), volume 1, 3rd reprint edition, Moscow: Russkij jazyk, page 573
- Derksen, Rick (2008), “*niknǫti”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 4), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 353
- Vasmer (Fasmer), Max (Maks) (1964–1973), “-ни́кнуть”, in Etimologičeskij slovarʹ russkovo jazyka [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), translated from German and supplemented by Trubačóv Oleg, Moscow: Progress
- Trubačóv, Oleg, editor (1999), “*niknǫti”, in Etimologičeskij slovarʹ slavjanskix jazykov [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), volume 25, Moscow: Nauka, page 114