Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/pyrъ

*kolsъ *pyra

Formally from Proto-Balto-Slavic *pū́ˀras m, *pū́ˀra n (descendants flucturate between mobile /in Lithuanian/ and fixed /in Slavic/ accent paradigms), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *puHrós (“sort of wild wheat”)[1] (according to Witczak, originally Triticum compactum). Cognate with Lithuanian pū̃ras (“corn of winter-wheat”) (plural pūraĩ refers to the plant), Latvian pûr̨i pl (“winter wheat”), Old Prussian pure f (“rye brome”), Ancient Greek πῡρός (pūrós, “wheat”).

Synchronically, represents an o-stem variant of i-stems *pyrь, *pyrьjь, with no discernable difference in meaning. Possibly diachronically formed as a (common) objective counterpart to an earlier (neuter) r/n-stem mass noun. Similar constructions are also found in Proto-Indo-European *wesh₂erós (“spring corn”), *sweh₂réh₂ (“millet”) (whence Lithuanian sóra (“common millet”), Western-Curonian dial. Latvian sūra (“a kind of panicgrass”)).

(The similarity to Chuvash пӑри (pări, “farro or spelt”), occassionally noted in the literature, is however a coincidence as it derives from Proto-Turkic *bodaɣay (“wheat etc.”).)

*pỳrъ m[1][2]

1. wild rye, couch grass (Elymus spp.)
2. spelt (Triticum aestivum subsp. spelta)

• *pỳro n[3], *pỳra f (relic collective)

• *pyriti (sę) (“to flourish in spelt/couch grass (for field, area)”)
• *pyrika, *pyrina, *pyrovina (“stem, root, or plant material of wheatgrass plant”)
• *pyrьnъ (“partaining to wheatgrass”)
  • *pyrьnikъ m, *pyrьnica f (“couch grass”) (in languages where the primary term refers to “spelt”)

From masc. o-stem, typically referring to “couch grass”:

• South Slavic:
  • Bulgarian: пир (pir) (dialectal)
    • ⇒ пи́рел (pírel, “ryegrass”) (dialectal, formally from *pyryľь)
  • Macedonian: пир (pir)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic: пи̏р

    Latin: pȉr

• West Slavic:
  • Czech: pýr
  • Slovak: pýr
  • Sorbian:
    • Upper Sorbian: pyr

From neut. o-stem, typically referring to “spelt”:

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: пꙑро (pyro)
    • Russian: пыро (pyro) (obsolete)
    • Ukrainian: пиро (pyro) (obsolete)
• South Slavic:
  • Russian Church Slavonic: пꙑро (pyro)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic: пи̏ро, пѝрика (dialectal)

    Latin: pȉrо, pìrika (dialectal)

  • Slovene: pȋro (obsolete), píra
    • ⇒ zapíriti se (“to grow full with couch grass; to become red, to blush”)

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), “пыро”, in Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), transl. and suppl. by Oleg Trubachyov, Moscow: Progress
• Duridanov I., Račeva M., Todorov T., editor (1996), “пир²”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 5, Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, page 250
• Трубачёв, Олег Николаевич (a. 2002) Труды по этимологии: Слово · История · Культура (in Russian), volume I, Moscow: Языки славянской культуры, published 2004, →ISBN, page 772
• Furlan, Metka (2016) Prispevki k slovenski in slovanski etimologiji (Linguistica et philologica), volume 32, Ljubljana: Založba ZRC SAZU, →ISBN, page 123-124
• “pūrai”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė [Lithuanian etymological dictionary database], 2007–2012
• Nieminen, Eino (1956), “Die Benennungen der Hirse in den baltischen Sprachen”, in Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der Indogermanischen Sprachen (in German), volume 74. 3./4., pages 162–176