Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/majati

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *māˀ-, with *-j- (or *-v-) inserted to break hiatus. Cognate with Lithuanian móti (“to beckon”), 1sg. móju, Latvian mãt (“to beckon”), 1sg. mãju, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-[1].

Pokorny (and hence Vasmer) separates the meanings "to detain, to exhaust" found among some daughter langauges into a separate, homophonous root *majati derived from Proto-Indo-European *meh₃-[2] and cognate with Old High German muoan (“to alarm, to worry”), muodi (“tired”) (modern German müde), Gothic 𐌰𐍆𐌼𐌰𐌿𐌹𐌸𐍃 (afmauiþs, “tired”), Ancient Greek μῶλος (môlos, “burden, labor”), μώλυς (mṓlus, “weakened, exhausted, stupid”), Latin mōlēs (“heaviness, weight”). Derksen prefers to keep all meanings together under Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-.

See also *māxàti, *mamiti for further discussion.

*màjati impf (perfective *manǫti) [3][4][5]

1. to beckon
2. to wave
3. to detain, to dawdle (regionally, see Etymology)
4. to enchant, to charm (figuratively)

• *mavati

• *omajьnъ (“enchanting”)
• *maхъ (“hand swing”)
• *majakъ (“lighthouse, signalling post”)
• *mati (“mother”) (at least morphologically)
• *makъ (“poppy”) (at least morphologically)

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: маꙗти (majati), помавати (pomavati)
    • Belarusian: ма́яць (májacʹ), мая́ць (majácʹ)
    • Russian: ма́ять (májatʹ); dialectal мавать (mavatʹ)
    • Ukrainian: ма́яти (májaty)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Cyrillic: намаꙗти (namajati) (attested form намаꙗахѫ (namajaaxǫ, 3pl. impf.))

    Glagolitic: [Term?]

  • Bulgarian: ма́я (mája)
  • Macedonian: мае (mae)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic: ма̏јати

    Latin: mȁjati

  • Slovene: majáti, májati (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: mávati
    • Czech: mávat
  • Slovak: mávať
  • Sorbian:
    • Lower Sorbian: mawaś

• Vasmer (Fasmer), Max (Maks) (1964–1973), “ма́ять”, in Etimologičeskij slovarʹ russkovo jazyka [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), translated from German and supplemented by Trubačóv Oleg, Moscow: Progress
• Černyx, P. Ja. (1999), “ма́ять”, in Istoriko-etimologičeskij slovarʹ russkovo jazyka [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), volume 1, 3rd reprint edition, Moscow: Russkij jazyk, page 518
• Trubačóv, Oleg, editor (1990), “*majati (sę)”, in Etimologičeskij slovarʹ slavjanskix jazykov [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), volume 17, Moscow: Nauka, page 132
• Trubačóv, Oleg, editor (1992), “*mavati”, in Etimologičeskij slovarʹ slavjanskix jazykov [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), volume 18, Moscow: Nauka, page 20
• Georgiev Vl. I., editor (1986), “мая¹ (to detain)”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 3, Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, page 701
• Georgiev Vl. I., editor (1986), “мая² (to enchant)”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 3, Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, page 702