Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/maca

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.

Proto-Slavic

Etymology

Likely onomatopoeic.

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

Noun

*maca f

1. pussy, pussycat, female cat

Inflection

Declension of *maca (soft a-stem)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*maca	*maci	*macę̇
genitive	*macę̇	*macu	*macь
dative	*maci	*macama	*macamъ
accusative	*macǫ	*maci	*macę̇
instrumental	*macejǫ, *macǫ**	*macama	*macami
locative	*maci	*macu	*macasъ, *macaxъ*
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”)

See also

• *kotъ (“cat”)
• *stьbľь (“wildcat”)

Descendants

• South Slavic:
  • Bulgarian: ма́ца (máca)
  • Macedonian: маца (maca)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: ма́ца

    Latin script: máca

  • Slovene: muca

• → Albanian: macë
• → Turkish: maçka, maçi
• → Hungarian: macska
• → Greek: μάτσιου (mátsiou)

Further reading

• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1990), “*maca”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 17 (*lъžь – *matješьnъjь), Moscow: Nauka, →ISBN, page 110