A PROTO-SLAVIC SOCIAL TERM *kъrdъ/*kъrtъ ʻCLAN, FAMILYʼ: GENESIS AND AREAL

The paper deals with the etymological interpretation of Slavonic dialectal lexical group, denoting clan, family, and some its derivatives. The author tries to determine the origin of terminological semantics of these lexemes and characterize their relations to other related non-Slavic forms. Preliminary results of the analysis of mentioned social terms are the reasons to substantiate their genesis within the etymological cluster with Indo-European *(s)ker- ʻcutʼ and figure out the closest terminological and etymological concordance in the Celtic archaic vocabulary. The formation of a common terminological semantics of genetically identical Slavonic and Celtic words took place in the epoch of cultural contacts of these ethnoses on the territory of Czechia, Moravia and Pannonia. Ultimately the author makes the precise conclusion about reflexes of the mentioned etymon, which indicate the semantic shift towards ʻto cutʼ > ʻto separateʼ > ʻto grow, thriveʼ, ʻto take rootʼ. Meanings ʻto be bornʼ, ʻliveʼ in Slavonic words evolved from ʻto grow, thriveʼ as a particular case of semantic history within system of derivatives from the stem *(s)ker-. Consequently social terms *kъrdъ/*kъrtъ ʻclan, familyʼ were derived from these verbs.