*albī

Runic: ᚨᛚᛒᛁ Pronunciation: /ˈɑl.βiː/

noun · feminine · ī/jō-stem

Meanings

river, stream; especially the river Elbe

Etymology

Probably from a substantivized feminine adjective, pre-Germanic *albʰ-ih₂- or *albʰ-yeh₂-, traditionally interpreted as ‘the white one’, possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *albʰós (Bichlmeier & Blažek 2014: 23; Kroonen 2013: 20). Compare Latin albus and Ancient Greek ἀλφός (alphós); the river name was borrowed as Latin Albis and Ancient Greek Ἄλβις (Álbis) (Orel 2003: 13). The derivation from ‘white’ remains uncertain, however. Bichlmeier (2015) alternatively proposes a possible derivation of the base from *h₂elh₂- with a suffixal element *-bʰ- (< *-bʰh₂-o-, < PIE root *bʰeh₂-) and interprets the name as ‘the meandering one’, an analysis compatible with the Elbe’s original course.

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nom.albīalbijôz
Acc.albijǭalbijōz
Gen.albijōzalbijǫ̂
Dat.albijōialbijōmaz
Inst.albijōalbijōmiz
Voc.albīalbijôz

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Descendants

  • *albī (Proto-West Germanic)
    • Ælf (Old English)
  • *albī (Proto-West Germanic)
    • *Elba, Elva (Old Dutch)
      • Elve (Middle Dutch)
  • *albī (Proto-West Germanic)
    • Elba (Old High German)
      • Elbe (Middle High German)
        • Elbe (German)
  • elfr (Old Norse)
    • elvur, elv (Faroese)
    • elfur, elfa (Icelandic)
    • elv, alv, ålv, olv, ølv (Norwegian Nynorsk)
  • elfr (Old Norse)
    • ælf, ælv (Old Danish)
      • elv (Danish)
      • elv (Norwegian Bokmål)
  • elfr (Old Norse)
    • ælf (Old Swedish)
      • älv, älf (Swedish)
  • Albia, Albis (Latin)
  • Ἄλβις (Álbis) (Ancient Greek)
  • *olba (Proto-Slavic)

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