Proto-North Caucasian: *mħŏq_we ( ~ -ʕ-)
Meaning: oak-tree
Notes: Reconstructed for the PEC level. Correspondences are regular. Note that neither of three similar roots used for "oak-tree" in Tsezian languages (*moqV/*noqV, *niχV and *moh) can reflect PEC *mħŏq_we, and all of them have, in fact, different EC etymologies (see *mĕlG_wɨ, *nīχ_V and *mǝ̆hwV).
In the Darg-Lezg. area the root *mħŏq_we also is used as a second part in a compound meaning 'small nut' (PD *s:il-mik:ʷ > Ak., Ur. sirmug, Kub. s:il-mik:(ʷ)a, Kharb. plur. sirmuk:ʷe, Tsud., Muir. sirmuk; PL > Tab. Düb. halmuqI, Kand. amluqI, Lezg. šümäʁ); the first part of the compound is not quite clear.
Abdokov (1983, 111) compares the EC forms with PAK *qʷa- in *qʷaħǝ 'boat, ship' (Ad. qʷǝħa, Bzhed. qʷāħǝ, Kab. qʷǝħ) and *qʷa-sʷá (Ad. qʷāśʷa, Kab. qʷāfa) id., as well as PAT *maqʷǝ-da 'bough, branch'. While theoretically possible, this comparison is semantically dubious, and the loss of *m- in PAK is hard to explain.
