Proto-Tsezian: *=eχV
Meaning: 1 bottom 2 knees
Tsezi: waħu 1 (Kid.)
Bezhta: beʁe 2
Comments: One of the roots with former class prefixes (w- in Tsez., b- in Bezht.); cf. also Bezht. Khosh., Tlad. beʁ 'groin'. The meaning 'knees, groin' is obviously secondary ( < *'lower part of body').
In Tsez. the word is also used as an adverb ('below'), and is sometimes provided with the locative ending -ƛ: waħ-ƛ > waIƛ. Probably the same root (with initial reduction) was used in PTsKh to denote 'behind': PTsKh *χ̥1̇[e]-zV- (Tsez. χizäz, Gin. hezo-); cf. an analogous reduction in PA *χi- > Tind. χe-ri 'behind'.
