*ab¹

Runic: ᚨᛒ Pronunciation: /ˈɑβ/

adverb

Meanings

away, off

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *apó, alternatively reconstructed as *h₂epó. The *b reflects Verner’s Law in the pre-Germanic development of *p in a weakly stressed/pretonic particle, though the accentual prehistory of this particle class is not entirely straightforward (Fulk 2018: 102; Ringe 2017: 125, 141). Cognate with Sanskrit अप (ápa), Ancient Greek ἀπό (apó), Latin ab, and probably with Hittite 𒀀𒀊𒉺 (a-ap-pa /āppa/); the Anatolian form without a reflex of the laryngeal is one reason to prefer *apó (Byrd 2015: 8; Dunkel 2014: 66–83).

Descendants

  • *ab, *af (Proto-West Germanic)
    • av, af (Old Dutch)
      • av, af (Middle Dutch)
        • aaf, aof (Limburgish)
        • of (West Flemish)
  • *ab, *af (Proto-West Germanic)
    • av, af (Old Dutch)
      • av, af (Middle Dutch)
        • af (Dutch)
          • af (Afrikaans)
  • *ab, *af (Proto-West Germanic)
    • ob, æf, af, of (Old English)
      • of, off (Middle English)
        • of, off (English)
        • of, off, af, aff (Scots)
  • *ab, *af (Proto-West Germanic)
    • af, of (Old Frisian)
      • oaw, ou (Saterland Frisian)
      • af, ôf (West Frisian)
  • *ab, *af (Proto-West Germanic)
    • ab, av, af (Old High German)
      • ab, av, af (Middle High German)
        • of (Luxembourgish)
        • אָפּ (op) (Yiddish)
  • *ab, *af (Proto-West Germanic)
    • ab, av, af (Old High German)
      • ab, av, af (Middle High German)
        • ab (German)
          • ab (Norwegian Bokmål)
  • *ab, *af (Proto-West Germanic)
    • af (Old Saxon)
      • af (Middle Low German)
        • af, of (Low German)
        • auf (Plautdietsch)
  • *ᚨᛒ (*ab) (Proto-Norse)
    • af (Old Norse)
      • af (Danish)
      • av (Faroese)
      • af (Icelandic)
      • av (Norwegian Bokmål)
      • av (Norwegian Nynorsk)
  • *ᚨᛒ (*ab) (Proto-Norse)
    • af (Old Norse)
      • af, āf, aff (Old Swedish)
        • av, af (Swedish)
  • 𐌰𐍆 (af) (Gothic)

Explore/search these descendants

View on Wiktionary

Entries that mention this word