Proto-North Caucasian: *=HōjćwV
Meaning: to untie, unbind
Notes: Reconstructed for the PEC level. Note the correspondence of PA *-j- to the PN development *ćw > *sṭ. The Nakh languages also have a root *=ēbc- / *=ōbc- 'to knit, plait' (Chech. =ūc-, Bacb. =epc-, term. =opc-) which may reflect the same verbal stem (with the plural infix -b-, which superseded *-j- and prevented the development *-jć- > *-sṭ-). Cf. also HU: Hurr. χuž- 'to bind, to detain', Urart. χuš- 'to annul (services), to stem (water)' (*'to untie'), see Diakonoff-Starostin 1986, 40.
