Towards the etymology of Proto-Slavic *kastь

The article is devoted to the problem of the origin of Proto-Slavic *kastь, which is reconstructed
based on Russian and Belarusian words (Russian dialect nouns and derived verbs and
Belarusian derived verbs) with the semantics ‘harm, damage, rubbish, something nasty; to
harm, spoil, litter, scold’. There are two versions of the origin of *kastь. Derivation from the
noun *kostь ‘bone’, proposed by O. L. Trubachev, requires the assumption of the lengthening
o>a in a denominal noun, which is not characteristic of Slavic derivation. Ya. K. Grot’s hypothesis
supposes the derivation of *kastь from the verb *kostiti ‘to scold’, which seems more
plausible. The present paper argues that *kastь is derived from Proto-Slavic *kaziti ‘to harm’
with the use of the suffix -tь (cf. Proto-Slavic *mazati → *mastь). Proto-Slavic *kastь is considered
as a Proto-Slavic dialect word.