Etymology
1. Unclear. Per Zhivlov (2014), possibly from Proto-Uralic *wotta- (compare Northern Mansi ва̄туӈкве (vātuňkve)).
2. In contrast, Koivulehto (2009) proposed that the word, through older *vont-ta-, was borrowed from Proto-Indo-European *wondʰ-éye- or its Pre-Germanic descendant, whence Proto-Germanic *wandijaną. The semantic development would be “to turn” > “to turn towards oneself” > “to take possession of” (compare German wenden (“to turn”) > German entwenden (“to steal”), and possible parallels in older Germanic languages as well, such as Old Norse venda), with the older meaning surviving in the derived word *vot'in (“key”, literally “a tool which is turned”). However, this is possibly semantically anachronistic; see *vot'in for more.
3. Formerly considered to derive from Proto-Uralic *watta- (compare Northern Sami vuohttit, Komi-Zyrian вотны (votny), Northern Mansi ва̄туӈкве (vātuňkve), Tundra Nenets [script needed] (wed́e-)), but this suffers from phonetic issues: the initial vowel in Finnic would be irregular (*a > *o). Furthermore, at least the Komi term has an alternative, more plausible etymology: Metsäranta (2020) traces it back to Proto-Uralic *wexe-ptä-.
4. Another possibility is what has been reconstructed as *vottadak was in fact two distinct words, *ottadak (“to take”) and *vëttadak (“to turn”), which were variously conflated in descendants. Koivulehto's etymology could then apply to the latter. The idea of two separate roots could explain irregularities with the initial *v (seemingly lost in all of Northern Finnic), and is afforded some support by Metsäranta (2020). However, crucially, the supposed original sense “to turn” is found nowhere in the descendants, and has only been presupposed based on *vot'in (although this is dubious, see it for more). See: Proto-Germanic '
*wandijaną', German, old spelling '
wenden', German, old spelling '
entwenden'.