Praslovanské slovo *konopja, jeho hypotetické zdroje, jejich původ a vývoj

Abstract

The study analyzes the designation of *konopja ‘hemp’ in Slavic languages, in the broader context of languages of Europe, the Near East and Central Asia, to trace the trajectories of borrowings in time and space. This analysis helps to clarify this seemingly non-Indo-European term by proposing that it could originate in the Iranian compound: *kana-baha- ‘seed of hemp (as a narcotic?)’ vel sim., with the derivative *kana-bahi̯a- ‘belonging to the seed of hemp᾽; or one of less probable alternatives: *kana-biš- ‘hemp with healing effect᾽; *kana-u̯ ai̯a- ‘hemp for weaving᾽; *kana-bīźa- ‘hemp seed᾽. These interpretations define the main uses of hemp at all. The Slavic term proper was very probably adopted from the south neighbours of the Slavic dialect continuum in the second half of the 1st mil. AD, the predecessors of Furlan or Istro-Romanian.