section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The city's name is thought to be derived from the Moskva River. Theories of the origin of the name of the river have been proposed.
  
  The most linguistically well-grounded and widely accepted is from the Proto-Balto-Slavic root * mŭzg -/ muzg - from the Proto-Indo-European * meu - "wet", so the name Moskva might signify a river at a wetland or marsh. Its cognates include Russian: музга, muzga "pool, puddle", Lithuanian: mazgoti and Latvian: mazgāt "to wash", Sanskrit: májjati "to drown", Latin: mergō "to dip, immerse". In many Slavic countries Moskov is a surname, most common in Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and North Macedonia. Additionally, there are similarly named places in Poland like Mozgawa. According to a Finno-Ugric hypothesis, the Merya and Muroma people, who were among the pre-Slavic tribes which inhabited the area, called the river Mustajoki "Black river", and the name of the river derives from this term. Other theories, having little or no scientific basis, are rejected by linguists.
  
  The original Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as * Москы, * Mosky, hence it was one of a few Slavic ū -stem nouns. As with other nouns of that declension, it had been undergoing a morphological transformation at the early stage of the development of the language, as a result, the first written references in the 12th century were Московь, Moskovĭ (accusative case), Москви, Moskvi (locative case), Москвe/Москвѣ, Moskve/Moskvě (genitive case). From the latter forms came the modern Russian name Москва, Moskva, which is a result of morphological generalization with the numerous Slavic ā -stem nouns. The form Moskovĭ has left traces in other languages, including English: Moscow; German: Moskau; French: Moscou; Portuguese: Moscou, Moscovo; and Spanish: Moscú.