Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Gunflint's avatar

Very interesting piece.

Sent me to Claude to see if it could answer a question I’ve had for a while.

Me:

A lot of European languages word for father seem to be traceable to Latin. Where did the Russian отец come from?

Claude:

Russian “отец” (otets) doesn’t come from Latin “pater” like many other European words for “father.” Instead, it has a different etymology within the Slavic language family.

The Russian “отец” derives from Proto-Slavic *otьcь, which is itself derived from an earlier form related to Proto-Slavic *ata (a child’s word for father, similar to “daddy”). The suffix -ьcь was added to create a more formal term. This Proto-Slavic root is cognate with words in other Slavic languages like Polish “ojciec,” Czech “otec,” and Bulgarian “отец.”

The ultimate origin traces back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂étteh₂ or *h₂atta, which was likely originally a nursery word (baby talk for father). This same root also gave rise to words like Hittite “atta” and some other Indo-European languages’ informal words for father.

So while Latin “pater” (from PIE *ph₂tḗr) spread to give us father words in Romance languages and some borrowings elsewhere, the Slavic languages preserved their own ancient Indo-European root for father that was originally more informal or affectionate in nature. This is why Russian “отец” sounds so different from “father,” “père,” “padre,” “Vater,” etc. - it comes from a completely different branch of the Indo-European family tree.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Expand full comment
David J. Sharp's avatar

An interesting corollary—the slang term “man” - as in the Sixties “Hey, man, what’s up?” - derived from African-American disgust with the “boy” insult.

Expand full comment
26 more comments...

No posts