# Slavic languages: spring



## Diaspora

What are the origins of words for spring in Slavic languages? Russian, Ukranian, Belarussia and Polish seem to have some version of wiosna/vesna, while Czech/Slovak have jaro, and BCS has proljeće, could proljeće be from the Latin "primavera" or is that a strech?


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## phosphore

How could it be from primavera? Proleće comes obviously from pro+leto.


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## DenisBiH

I believe primavera is Spanish (and possibly other Romance).

Latin word for "spring" seems to have been _ver_, which is a cognate of OCS _vesna_, from PIE heteroclitic *wes-r / *wes-n


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## ilocas2

Diaspora said:


> What are the origins of words for spring in slavic languages? Russian, Ukranian, Belarussia and Polish seem to have some version of wiosna/vesna, while Czech/Slovak have jaro, and BCS has proljeće, could proljeće be from the Latin "primavera" or is that a strech?



Just little correction:

Czech - jaro
Slovak - jar


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## DenisBiH

And according to this and this the jar- words seem to come from Proto-Slavic *jarъ, itself deriving from PIE *yeh2r- *1, with cognates such as English year and German Jahr.


*1 There seem to exist reconstructions with either h1 or h2 as the laryngeal.


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## TriglavNationalPark

Slovenian has *pomlad* (*mlad* = young; i.e. "young year").


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## jazyk

And _vesna_, even though hardly used, also exists in Czech as spring.


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## Maroseika

Strange enough, *пролетье *in Russian is not a spring, but the beginning of summer. But cf. Ukrainian _провесiнь _and _вiдзимки _- early spring.
*Яр, ярi* also exist in Ukrainian as poetic name for a spring.
In Russian _*яр *_is used in such ajectives as:
*яровой *хлеб - spring crop
*ярые *пчелы - first swarm of bees in the summer


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## TriglavNationalPark

jazyk said:


> And _vesna_, even though hardly used, also exists in Czech as spring.


 
Same in Slovenian. Most people are aware of *vesna* and its meaning, but virtually no one ever uses it. _Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika_ marks it as "poetic".


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## TriglavNationalPark

Maroseika said:


> Strange enough, *пролетье *in Russian is not a spring, but the beginning of summer. But cf. Ukrainian _провесiнь _and _вiдзимки _- early spring.


 
In Slovenian, *poletje* = summer.


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## sokol

As has been said by phosphore, BCS _prol(j)eće_ is from "pro+l(j)eto" = "early year" or "early summer", depending on when this term originated and whether "leto" then already changed its meaning to "summer" (I have no sources for that but I think "leto" still should have meant "year" then).

Names like "early-year" or such for "spring" exist in many languages (in German "Frühjahr" besides "Frühling", the former meaning exactly the same - "early-year"); they might have developed independently (or might be loaned also in some cases where cultural contact existed between the languages concerned).


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## marco_2

Maroseika said:


> Strange enough, *пролетье *in Russian is not a spring, but the beginning of summer. But cf. Ukrainian _провесiнь _and _вiдзимки _- early spring.
> *Яр, ярi* also exist in Ukrainian as poetic name for a spring.
> In Russian _*яр *_is used in such ajectives as:
> *яровой *хлеб - spring crop
> *ярые *пчелы - first swarm of bees in the summer


 
It is similar in Polish -we say *zboża jare *for "spring crop" and *jarzyny  *for "vegetables" (although *warzywa *are more common). In the past we also had the word *jarka *for an animal or plant which appeared this spring (or summer). But "spring" is *wiosna*, as it has already been said.


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## Maroseika

marco_2 said:


> In the past we also had the word *jarka *for an animal or plant which appeared this spring (or summer). .


Yes, I completely forgot about _*ярка *_- young ewe.


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## Maroseika

sokol said:


> As has been said by phosphore, BCS _prol(j)eće_ is from "pro+l(j)eto" = "early year" or "early summer",


At least etymologically '*pro*' means before: *before *summer/year (пролетье) or *before *spring (Ukr. провесна, провесінь).


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## Orlin

Bulgarian: пролет.


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## sokol

Maroseika said:


> At least etymologically '*pro*' means before: *before *summer/year (пролетье) or *before *spring (Ukr. провесна, провесінь).


Oh yes of course, sorry for the imprecision in my English explanation.


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## Orlin

Koliko ja znam, u starom bugarskom je imalo reči "весна", a reč "пролет" je stvorena kasnije - u srednjem ili novom periodu razvoja bugarskog jezika.


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## DenisBiH

Orlin said:


> Koliko ja znam, u starom bugarskom je imalo reči "весна", a reč "пролет" je stvorena kasnije - u srednjem ili novom periodu razvoja bugarskog jezika.




Nisam to znao, ali sam imao predosjećaj da stvari možda nisu toliko jednostavne u BCS, pa sam gore stavio samo hrvatski, a ne BCS. Evo ipak i šta kaže Skok:



> vesna f »proljeće«, nije hrv.-srp. narodska riječ, nego pjesnička (ubava vesna), uzeta po svoj prilici iz češ. Nalazi se u stcslav., češ., polj., ukr. i rus. Praslav. U južnoslav. jezicima nepoznata. Danas žensko lično ime.


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## sokol

Mod note:

This is _*not*_ about whether or not Czechs ever worshipped a goddess Vesna.
The topic of this thread _*is*_ the Slavic name for spring and its etymology.

Here, in this thread, however please only refer to the etymology of "vesna", which indeed is a old Slavic word, or the one of other words for "spring" in Slavic.
As far as etymology is concerned I think we already have a reliable source, the one quoted by DenisBH. Of course it is perfectly on-topic to discuss the validity of this etymology, but please do so with quoting other authoritative sources, and please try to "maintain an atmosphere that is serious, academic and collaborative, with a respectful, helpful and cordial tone" (quote from our rules).

Thank you!


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## ilocas2

I've found a good article about the Czech words for spring:

http://klub.slovniky.cz/clanek/jaro-a-vesna


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## sokol

Mod note: please contribute on the origin of Czech "vesna" in this new thread. Posts referring to this question only are off-topic here.

Thank you for your understanding!
Cheers
sokol
moderator EHL


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