The name "Carpates" may ultimately be from the Proto Indo-European root "*sker-"/"*ker-", from which comes the Albanian word "karpë" (rock), and the Slavic word "skála" (rock, cliff), perhaps via a Dacian cognate which meant mountain, rock, or rugged (cf. Germanic root "*skerp-", Old Norse "harrow", Gothic "skarpo", Middle Low German "scharf" "potsherd", and Modern High German "Scherbe" "shard", Old English and English "sharp", Lithuanian "kar~pas" "cut, hack, notch", Latvian "cìrpt" "to shear, clip"). The archaic Polish word "karpa" meant "rugged irregularities, underwater obstacles/rocks, rugged roots, or trunks". The more common word "skarpa" means a sharp cliff or other vertical terrain. The name may instead come from Indo-European * "to turn", akin to Old English "to turn, change" (English warp) and Greek "wrist", perhaps referring to the way the mountain range bends or veers in an L-shape.