часъ

Forms

часъ (časŭ) m, o-stem, Glagolitic ⱍⰰⱄⱏ^[1] The Zographensis and the Marianus once write чѣсъ.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Slavic *časъ (“time”), from Proto-Balto-Slavic *keˀs-, a word of all the Slavic languages.^[3][4][1] The same word is Russian час (čas, “hour”), Bulgarian час (čas, “hour”), Serbo-Croatian čas (“moment”), Slovene čas (“time”), Czech čas (“time, weather”) and Polish czas (“time”).^[3][4][5] The sense time is found everywhere except in Bulgarian and Russian, hour in South Slavic, Old Czech, Belarusian and Russian, and weather in West Slavic.^[3] Its nearest relatives outside Slavic are Old Prussian kīsman (“time”), an accusative, and Albanian kohë (“time, season, weather”), though their further etymology is difficult and Derksen finds the Albanian match not straightforward.^[3][4][5]

The Indo-European source is disputed, and ESJS sets out four proposals.^[3] The most common links the word with чаꙗти (“to wait, expect”) and a root meaning to observe, so that the first sense was the awaited or fitting time (Berneker) or time read from the sky;^[3][1][4] Wiktionary gives Proto-Indo-European *k(ʷ)eh₁s- (“time”), possibly related to *kʷeh₁y- (“to perceive”), and Derksen too reconstructs this root, or else a root *keh₁- with an s-suffix.^[4][3][1][4] Vasmer records Jokl's objections to the link with чаꙗти.^[5] Other proposals start from a root meaning to be in motion, or from *kes- in the sense to run, hurry, which Machek compared with Serbo-Croatian kasati (“to run”) and German hasten (“to hurry”), or to cut, scratch, from which G. Jacobsson derived a first sense notch, together with Proto-Slavic *kosa.^[3][5] Wiktionary compares the lengthened grade of *kes- to go with the development of Latin annus (“year”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Gospels часъ renders Ancient Greek ὥρα (hṓra, “hour, time”): приде часъ • да прославитъ сѧ с‹ꙑ›нъ ч‹ловѣчь›скꙑ “the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified” (J 12, 23 Zogr), where the Marianus and the Assemanianus have година.^[2][6] It is frequent in the Codex Suprasliensis.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

The canonical texts use the word for time in general, also for καιρός (L 8, 13 Sav, where the other Gospels have врѣмѧ), for a particular time or moment, for ῥοπή and στιγμή, and for the hour as a twelfth part of the day.^[6][2] Adverbial phrases are common: на мъногъ часъ or мъногꙑ часꙑ for a long time, по вьсѧ часꙑ always, and въ тъ часъ or томь часѣ for ἐν τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐκείνῃ, then, at once.^[6][2] In liturgical texts the plural names the minor canonical hours, prime, terce, sext and none, and the Suprasliensis once uses the word for weather.^[6][3]

Later Church Slavonic kept these senses: Giltebrandt lists it for ὥρα and στίγμα in the New Testament, and Sedakova explains it as time or appointed season, as hour, and as the name of the daily services of the hours.^[8][9] From Church Slavonic come Russian часы for the office of the hours and Romanian ceas (“time, hour, clock”).^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. time, a period of time; for ὥρα, καιρός.^[6][2][1]
2. A particular time, moment, instant; for ὥρα, ῥοπή, στιγμή.^[6][2][1]
3. An hour of the day; for ὥρα.^[6][1]
4. (liturgy, plural) The minor canonical hours: prime, terce, sext and none; for ὥρα.^[6][3]
5. weather (once, in the Suprasliensis); for ὥρα.^[6][3]

Word family

• часьнъ

Related words

• година
• врѣмѧ
• Russian час (čas)
• Romanian ceas

Usage notes

The oldest Gospel manuscripts vary between часъ and година for ὥρα: at J 5, 28 the Zographensis has часъ where the Marianus, Assemanianus and Ostromir Gospel have година, and at Mt 24, 42 the Zographensis, Marianus and Assemanianus read въ коѭ годинѫ where one passage of the Ostromir Gospel has въ кꙑи часъ.^[6][2]

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 g h 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 i j k l Havlová, Eva; Erhart, Adolf; Janyšková, Ilona (eds.) (1989–2022), Etymologický slovník jazyka staroslověnského, 21 fascicles, Praha: Academia / Brno: Tribun EU, p. 99
4. ^ a b c d e f Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 79
5. ^ a b c d Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 4, 318
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
7. ^ Eckhoff, Hanne M.; Berdicevskis, Aleksandrs et al., TOROT: The Tromsø Old Russian and OCS Treebank, release 20200116, torottreebank.github.io
8. ^ Gil'tebrandt, P. A. (1882–1885), Spravočnyj i ob''jasnitel'nyj slovar' k Novomu Zavetu, 6 vols., Sankt-Peterburg
9. ^ Sedakova, O. A. (2005), Slovar' trudnyx slov iz bogosluženija: cerkovnoslavjano-russkie paronimy, Moskva: Grēko-latinskij kabinet Ju. A. Šičalina