mamъ

Certainty: +

mara (RuCS) `ecstasy' [f ā]

mára, mará `apparition, mirage;

(dial.) house-sprite, evil spirit' [f ā]

mará, mára `dream, apparition, nightmare;

(dial.) `witch, demon' [f ā]

Certainty: +

Comments: There are basically two views on the origin of *mara. According to a hypothesis put forward by Franck (1904: 129) and advocated by a.o. Schuster-Šewc (885ff), *mara continues PIE *mōrā and differs from *mora only in having lengthened grade. The alternative etymology, which can at least be traced to Zubatý 1894, connects *mara with the root ma- < *meh₂- of majati, mamъ etc. Though it seems at a first glance unsatisfactory to separate *mara from *mora - in Polish, for instance, mara and mora are synonymous -, it is awkward that in most Slavic languages both apophonic variants would occur side by side. Perhaps we have to start from *mara `illusion, apparition' beside *mora `female demon that tortures people with nightmares', which later became confused. This scenario may also offer an explanation for the fact that the accentual paradigm of both words is so hard to determine. We would expect *màra (a) - in view of Hirt's law - beside *morà (b) or (c). Nevertheless we find forms like Ru. móra and mará (beside mára). I think that in this respect, too, we have to reckon with analogy.