Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/wōl

This Proto-West Germanic 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-West Germanic

Etymology

Presumably from Proto-Germanic *wōlaz, possible nominalization of otherwise unattested *wōliz (“disastrous, ruined”), vṛddhi gerundive of unattested *wal(j)aną (“to divistate, ruin”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₃- (“to hit, to strike”).

Noun

*wōl m

1. disaster, ruin

Inflection

Masculine a-stem
	Singular
Nominative	*wōl
Genitive	*wōlas
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	*wōl	*wōlō, *wōlōs
Accusative	*wōl	*wōlā
Genitive	*wōlas	*wōlō
Dative	*wōlē	*wōlum
Instrumental	*wōlu	*wōlum

Derived terms

• *wōlijan

Descendants

• Old English: wōl
• Old Saxon: wōl
• Old High German: wuol

Further reading

• Kroonen, Guus (2013) “*wōla-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 592