Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/kapati

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.

Either of onomatopaeic origin (from the sound made by dripping water cap!) or an enlonged grade of Proto-Slavic *kopati (“to dig, to ditch”), akin to Lithuanian kapóti (“to hack, to chop”), Latvian kapât (“to chop”), and Ancient Greek κόπτω (kóptō, “to strike, to shake”). Often compared to Proto-Indo-Iranian *kapʰas (“phlegm, mucus”), which however may be from non-Indo-European substratum.

*kàpati impf (perfective *kapnǫti)^[1][2]

1. to drip

• *kapъ (“culvert, drainage”)
  • *kapъka (“droplet, drop”)
• *kapь (“drop”)
  • *kapľa (“droplet”)
• *kapežь (“leakage”)

• *jьzkapati (“to drop out”)
• *zakapati (“to leak down, to rot”)
• *okapati (“to fall down”)
• *sъkapati (“to fall apart, to break down”)
• *prokapati (“to leak through”)
• *perkapati (“to drip a single droplet”)
• *prikapati (“to add a droplet”)

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: ка́паць (kápacʹ)
  • Russian: ка́пать (kápatʹ)
  • Ukrainian: ка́пати (kápaty)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic: капати (kapati)
  • Bulgarian: ка́пя (kápja)
  • Macedonian: капе (kape)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: ка̏пати

    Latin script: kȁpati

  • Slovene: kápati (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: kapat
  • Kashubian: kapac
  • Polish: kapać

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “ка́пать”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1983), “*kapati”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 9 (*jьz – *klenьje), Moscow: Nauka, page 144
• Georgiev, Vladimir I., editor (1979), “капя, капвам, капна”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 2 (и – крепя̀), Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Pubg. House, page 227