Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/kaitos

This Proto-Celtic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Celtic

Etymology

The closest cognate is Proto-Germanic *haiþī; given the *a, Matasović supposes substrate origin.^[1] Also compared with Latin bū-cētum (“pastureland”, literally “cow-pasture”), assuming this analysis is even correct, as well as Albanian kath (“type of wheat”), kashtë (“straw”), for Proto-Indo-European *kayt- (properly, *keh₂-it-), but the unusual structure of the root (or its suffix) and irregular sound correspondences with Albanian suggest a word that entered Indo-European languages after the breakup of the protolanguage.

Noun

*kaitos m

woods
Synonym: *widus

Reconstruction notes

The choice to reconstruct masculine gender for this word is arbitrary on the parts of Schrijver^[2] and McCone;^[3] it could equally as well be neuter.

The Gaulish reflexes offer no indication of gender, since they could have been reshaped by the tendency to have neuter settlement names and masculine men's names.
Brittonic is inconclusive as well, since the word is feminine in Welsh while being masculine in Breton. While the Gaulish combining form *caito- ~ *ceto- exposes the Welsh gender as secondary (a collective?), the neuter was lost in Brittonic with many neuters being reassigned as masculine.

Inflection

Masculine o-stem
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*kaitos	*kaitou	*kaitoi
vocative	*kaite	*kaitou	*kaitoi
accusative	*kaitom	*kaitou	*kaitons
genitive	*kaitī	*kaitous	*kaitom
dative	*kaitūi	*kaitobom	*kaitobos
locative	*kaitei	*?	*?
instrumental	*kaitū	*kaitobim	*kaitūis

Descendants

Proto-Brythonic: *koɨd
- Middle Breton: coat
  - Breton: koad
- Old Cornish: cuit
  - Middle Cornish: coys
    - Cornish: koos
- Old Welsh: coit
  - Middle Welsh: coet
    - Welsh: coed
- Cumbric: cɛ̄d
- →⇒ Latin: Letocetum
  - →⇒ Old English: Liċetfeld
    - English: Lichfield
Gaulish: *caito-, *ceto-
- →⇒ Latin: Borcetum
  - → German: Burtscheid
- →⇒ Latin: Cettius, Cetium, Diocetus
⇒ Celtiberian: (name of a Lusitanian town)
- → Ancient Greek: Καιτόβριξ (Kaitóbrix)
- → Latin: Caitobrix
  - → Arabic: شِطُوبَر (šiṭūbar)
    - → Portuguese: Setúbal

References

^ Matasović, Ranko (2009), “*kayto-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 198
^ Peter C. H. Schrijver (1995), Studies in British Celtic Historical Phonology (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 5), Amsterdam; Atlanta, Ga.: Rodopi, page 219.
^ McCone, Kim (1996), Towards a relative chronology of ancient and medieval Celtic sound change, Maynooth: Dept. of Old Irish, St. Patrick's College, →ISBN, page 149

[1] Matasović, Ranko (2009), “*kayto-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 198

[2] Peter C. H. Schrijver (1995), Studies in British Celtic Historical Phonology (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 5), Amsterdam; Atlanta, Ga.: Rodopi, page 219.

[3] McCone, Kim (1996), Towards a relative chronology of ancient and medieval Celtic sound change, Maynooth: Dept. of Old Irish, St. Patrick's College, →ISBN, page 149

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