Wurdahuzdą: Proto-Germanic dictionary — *turbzScott K. ShayWardja Presshttps://protogermanic.org/pgmc_turbz
Single-entry extract from the dictionary. Cross-references to other entries point to their identifiers in the full dictionary.
*derbʰ-to plait, braid, twist, spin, weave, windदर्भtuft of grass
nounmasculineconsonant stemturf, peatFrom Proto-Indo-European *derbʰ- (‘tuft, grass; to wind, spin’), as tufts of plants tend to cluster and form winding shapes; compare Sanskrit दर्भ (darbhá, ‘tuft of grass’).Don Ringe argues that the lack of a-mutation in Old High German shows that zurba must have originally been a consonant stem. In addition, Old English turf clearly shows a consonant-stem declension.In many of the descendants, the noun was thematized early on enough to cause a-mutation in the descendant forms.