вълѣсти

Forms

вълѣсти (vŭlěsti) pf^[1] Present вълѣзѫ, вълѣзеши.^[2] Also written вьлѣсти, as in the Codex Marianus and the Codex Zographensis.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Old Church Slavonic въ- (vŭ-) + лѣсти (lěsti, “to crawl, climb”), one of the prefixed verbs of a simple verb that OCS itself hardly attests and that ESJS records only from Miklosich's Church Slavonic dictionary.^[4] Others are излѣсти, възлѣсти and прѣлѣсти, beside the iterative лазити with the lengthened grade of the root.^[4][5]

The simple verb continues Proto-Slavic *lězti (“to crawl, climb”).^[1][4][6] The same verb is Russian лезть (leztʹ), Ukrainian лізти (lízty), Bulgarian лазя (ljáza), Serbo-Croatian ljȅsti, Slovene lẹ́sti, Czech lézt, Slovak liezť and Polish leźć, all meaning to crawl or climb, and in several languages also to get somewhere or to go with effort.^[4][1][6]

ESJS derives it from an Indo-European root *legh- “to creep along the ground, low”, and its nearest relatives are Baltic: Old Prussian līse (“crawls”), Latvian lẽzêt (“to slide”) and Lithuanian words for “flat”.^[4][6][5][1] It is further connected with Old Norse lágr (“low”), the source of the English word low, and less surely with Ancient Greek λαχύς (lakhús, “low”).^[4][5][1] Derksen reconstructs Proto-Balto-Slavic *leʔź- and Proto-Indo-European *leh₁ǵʰ-.^[6] Pokorny and Vaillant thought the root might be the same as that of лешти (“to lie down”), with “move lying down” turning into “crawl”, and ESJS accepts from this only that the lengthened grade *lěz- goes back to an old perfect, as in *sěd- “sit”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Gospel manuscripts use it for getting into a boat and for entering, as in ѣко самъ вьлѣзъ въ корабь сѣдѣаше въ мори “so that he got into a boat and sat on the sea”, for Ancient Greek ἐμβαίνω (embaínō) (Mc 4, 1 Mar), and еда можетъ въторицеѭ въ ѫтробѫ вьлѣсти матере своеѩ “can he enter a second time into his mother's womb?”, for Ancient Greek εἰσέρχομαι (eisérkhomai) (J 3, 4 Zogr Mar As Ostr).^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The SJS lists a wide range of Greek verbs behind it: besides those for entering and embarking, also verbs of going up and going down, so that it can mean to ascend into the temple or to descend into something.^[3][1] Where the Ostromir Gospel has вълѣзоста въ црькъве for “went up into the temple” (L 18, 10), the other Gospel manuscripts have вънити, with which the SNSP compares it.^[3][2] It is frequent in the Codex Suprasliensis, where TOROT counts 46 uses, and it also occurs in the Euchologium Sinaiticum.^[7][2] SlaVaComp records it for Greek verbs of entering and embarking in liturgical translations of the end of the 9th and beginning of the 10th century from the First Bulgarian Empire.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To enter, go in; for εἰσέρχεσθαι, εἰσιέναι.^[3][2][1]
2. To get into, embark (a boat); for ἐμβαίνειν.^[3][2]
3. To go up, ascend; for ἀναβαίνειν.^[3]
4. To go down, descend (into something); for καταβαίνειν.^[3][1]

Word family

• вълѣзениѥ

Related words

• излѣсти
• възлѣсти
• прѣлѣсти
• лазити
• вълазити
• лѣствица
• Russian лезть (leztʹ)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Slovník nejstarších staroslověnských památek (digital ed., Gorazd, Slovanský ústav AV ČR, gorazd.org); cf. Cejtlin, R. M.; Večerka, R.; Blagova, É. (eds.) (1994), Staroslavjanskij slovar' (po rukopisjam X–XI vekov), Moskva: Russkij jazyk
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
4. ^ a b c d e f g Havlová, Eva; Erhart, Adolf; Janyšková, Ilona (eds.) (1989–2022), Etymologický slovník jazyka staroslověnského, 21 fascicles, Praha: Academia / Brno: Tribun EU
5. ^ a b c Sadnik, Linda; Aitzetmüller, Rudolf (1955), Handwörterbuch zu den altkirchenslavischen Texten, Heidelberg: Winter / 's-Gravenhage: Mouton, p. 261
6. ^ a b c d Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 275
7. ^ Eckhoff, Hanne M.; Berdicevskis, Aleksandrs et al., TOROT: The Tromsø Old Russian and OCS Treebank, release 20200116, torottreebank.github.io
8. ^ SlaVaComp Metaglossar Griechisch–Kirchenslavisch, Universität Freiburg, slavistik-portal.de