Etymology and the semantic development of the word pluta (‘wet weather’) – an example of parallels in meteorological terminology in the Polish language and in the East Slovak dialect

Abstract

The text discusses an example of a lexical unit which is common to the Polish language and the eastern Slovak dialect. A lexical-semantic analysis of the Polish pluta ‘wet weather’ and the East Slovak pľuta/pluta ‘idem’ is conducted in the all-Slavic context. Research utilizes dictionary materials, linguistic atlases and index cards of dictionaries. Apart from the basic meaning which denotes wet weather, the lexeme also refers to objects and phenomena associated with water, wetness, e.g. fords, puddles, small ponds, little lakes, floods. It is also the basis of certain hydronyms. The article discusses the problem of etymology. The proto-form is constituted by *pľuta, which is derived from the PIE root *pleu̯- ‘to flow, to stream, to overflow’. The word is compared with the descendants of the cognate Proto-Slavic homonym *pluta. The northern Slavic *pľuta has a much more limited range. Considering the possibility of borrowing to the Ukrainian and the Belarusian language and the ambiguous etymology o the Lower Sorbian plut/pluta, the word in question most likely constitutes a common Polish-eastern Slovak lexical-semantic innovation.