A. S. Bezlepkin. On the etymology of Latin nūbere ‘marry (of a woman)’ and PIE *snusó- ‘daughter-in-law’ (pp. 49–58)

Author

A. S. Bezlepkin (Moscow)

Keywords\n etymology, kinship terms, marriage, bride, daughter-in-law

Pages\n 49–58

Summary\n

In the reconstructed forms of several PIE verbs the suffix -bh- can be singled out. The suffix expresses the meaning of the subject’s state or a transition to a state. Latin nūbere probably goes back to the etymon*sneu_bh-, which seems to belong to the same word formation type. Thisimplies that the hypothetical formative verb *sneu_- was somehow related tomarriage. Two sets of data independent of each other point indirectly to itsexact sense.First, the reflexes of PIE *sneu_H- ‘to turn’ (Old Norse snúa, Russiansnovat’, Polish snuć się) are semantically very close to the continuations ofProto-Germanic *hwerb-a- ‘to turn’ (resp. Old High German werban, OldSaxon hwerban, Gothic ƕairban) which is cognate to German werben ‘torecruit, to attract, to seek in marriage’. It seems likely that *sneu_H- is anenlargement of *sneu_-. Their meanings must have been similar initially, butsubsequently *sneu_- – as opposed to *sneu_H- – may have developed in thesame direction as werben.Second, some PIE verbs in -bh- mean the subject’s state (or a transition to a state) which is a consequence of an action of their formative verbs. In such cases, the formative verbs and the causative forms of the corresponding derivative verbs in -bh- prove to be more or less synonymous. It is probable that *sneu_- and *sneu_bh- were connected by this relation as well. Among Slavic verbs which are traced back to the causative form*snou_bh-éi_e- Slovenian snúbiti and Croatian snúbiti are the most archaic inrespect of their semantics. They mean ‘to recruit, to attract, to seek inmarriage’. (German werben is their standard translation in both matrimonialand non-matrimonial contexts.) This suggests that PIE *sneu_- had basically the same meaning. Accordingly, PIE *sneu_bh- meant at first ‘to be/become recruited, attracted, sought in marriage’.There are reasons to suppose that PIE *snusó- originally designated bride. It was probably derived by thematicization from the neuter -es-stem (‘marriage proposal’) based on the root *sneu_-.

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