tyć (Polish)
Where does "tyć" come from?
The Polish verb 'tyć', meaning 'to gain weight', traces its history back to the ancient roots of the Slavic language family. It evolved from the Old Polish 'tyć', which itself derived from the Proto-Slavic form '*tỳti'. This word descends from a Proto-Balto-Slavic ancestor and ultimately finds its origins in the Proto-Indo-European '*téwh₂-ti'. This root is built upon the foundational Indo-European base '*tewh₂-', which carries the primary sense of 'to swell' or 'to crowd'. Over millennia, this concept of physical swelling provided the linguistic basis for the modern verb used to describe the process of putting on weight.
Full etymology tree
- tyć (Polish), 'to gain weight'
- inherited tyć (Old Polish)
- inherited *tỳti (Proto-Slavic), 'to become fat, gain weight'
- inherited *téwh₂-ti (Proto-Balto-Slavic)
- inherited *tewh₂- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to swell, grow fat'
- inherited *téwh₂-ti (Proto-Balto-Slavic)
- inherited *tỳti (Proto-Slavic), 'to become fat, gain weight'
- inherited tyć (Old Polish)
Descendants and derived words
- otyć (Polish)
- otyłość (Polish)
- otyły (Polish)
- otyły (Polish)
- roztyć (Polish)
Updated August 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris