Etymology
1. From Proto-Baltic *skait-, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *(s)keit-, [Term?] *(s)koit-, an ablaut variant of Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut; to separate”).
2. The original meaning was thus “cut (off)”, apparently a reference to incisions made on wood to mark numbers or quantities (a custom found among many peoples, and also among ancient Latvians); the noun skaits “number” would have originally meant “incision”, and the verb skaitīt “to make incisions” > “to mark the number”, “to count”.
3. It is also possible that another stem, proposed by some researchers as the source of skaitīt: Proto-Indo-European *kʷeyt- (“to observe”) (> Russian честь (čestʹ, “honor”), Sanskrit चेतति (cétati, “to notice, observe”), केत (kéta, “will, intention, tendency, invitation”)), has converged historically with *skey- in this word.
4. Cognates include Lithuanian skaitýti (“to read; to count; to calculate”), Proto-Slavic *čisti, *čitati “to read, to count”, from earlier Proto-Slavic *kitō or *skitō (Old Church Slavonic чисти (čisti, “to count”), first person present tense чьтѫ (čĭtǫ), Russian чита́ть (čitátʹ, “to read”), dialectal and archaic честь (čestʹ, “to read, to count”), Bulgarian чета́ (četá, “to read”), dialectal четъ́ (četắ, “to count”), Czech čítat (“to read, to count”), čísti (“to read”), Polish czytać (“to read”), Old Polish czyść), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌽 (skaidan), German scheiden (“to divide, to separate”). See: Russian '
честь', Sanskrit '
चेतति', Proto-Slavic '
*čisti', Old Church Slavonic '
чисти', Russian '
чита́ть', Czech '
čítat', Polish '
czytać', German, old spelling '
scheiden'.
Verbs referencing "skaitīt"
Lithuanian
skaityti, Proto-Slavic
čitati.