Three approaches to the etymology of Slavic * - are developed under two complementary assumptions about the age of the forms reconstructed with short second syllable. These three approaches are tested to determine which best yields the spread of attested accentual and other forms listed in representative sources. Derivations containing the PIE neuter deictic *h1ed as first component are found to be the most fruitful if it is assumed that anlaut laryngeals remained in Slavic until the completion of both Winter’s law and the subsequent loss by dissimilation of one or more laryngeal reflexes, including the laryngeal component of PIE *d, in this compound word, all these reflexes having merged by this time in some kind of glottal constriction. Comments are also offered on the etymologies of Slavic * (ъ)và and Lith. võs.

Three approaches to the etymology of Slavic * - are developed under two complementary assumptions about the age of the forms reconstructed with short second syllable. These three approaches are tested to determine which best yields the spread of attested accentual and other forms listed in representative sources. Derivations containing the PIE neuter deictic *h1ed as first component are found to be the most fruitful if it is assumed that anlaut laryngeals remained in Slavic until the completion of both Winter’s law and the subsequent loss by dissimilation of one or more laryngeal reflexes, including the laryngeal component of PIE *d, in this compound word, all these reflexes having merged by this time in some kind of glottal constriction. Comments are also offered on the etymologies of Slavic * (ъ)và and Lith. võs.