Reconstruction:Proto-Balto-Slavic/gā́ˀtei

From Proto-Indo-European *gʷéh₂-t ~ *gʷh₂-ént, from *gʷeh₂- (“to step, to tread”).

*gā́ˀtei

1. to go, to proceed

Originally a root-aorist, the verb either has become suppletive to synonymous *eitei (filling up the role of the aorist) or acquired je-present counterpart. Slavic languages have preserved deverbial nouns and a secondary causative derived from the verb-stem, but the base verb itself was lost.

Probably fixed accent with je-present (in some dialects).

• *gā́ˀźtei (“to wade, to trample, to overturn”)

• East Baltic:
  • Latvian: gãju (preterite of iet)
  • Lithuanian: góti (“to rush, hurry”) (dialectal)
• Proto-Slavic: *gati
  • ⇒ *gatь (“causeway”) (relic ti-stem), *gatъ m/*gata f (“some kind of obstruction (heap, pond, weir)”) (relic to-stem)
    • ⇒ *gatiti (“to tramp, to tackle hindrance”)

• Derksen, Rick (2015), “goti”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Baltic Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 13), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 184
• Derksen, Rick (2008), “*gatъ, *gatь”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 4), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 162
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1979), “*gatiti”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological Dictionary of Slavic Languages] (in Russian), issue 6 (*e – *golva), Moscow: Nauka, page 105
• “goti”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė [Lithuanian etymological dictionary database], 2007–2012