Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *sъborъ ‎(“meeting, gathering, assembly”). The semantic shift to the sense of "word" likely occurred as a result of linguistic convergence with nearby languages, known as the Balkan sprachbund, and was perhaps of pre-Slavic origin; as tribal or clan meetings and gatherings were important places that words were exchanged, the word took on this meaning. Cf. Aromanian cuvendã ‎(“word”), derived from Latin conventum ‎(“coming together, gathering”) or Albanian kuvend ‎(“convention, assembly, gathering”), and also Romanian cuvânt ‎(“word”). The Greek κουβέντα ‎(kouvénta, “conversation, chat; word phrase”) also developed this sense. Aromanian also borrowed zbor from Macedonian. This semantic shift is not found in most other Slavic language cognates; cf. Russian съборъ ‎(sʺbor) and Old Church Slavonic съборъ ‎(sŭborŭ, “meeting, council”), and also the Macedonian doublet собор ‎(sobor, “gathering”).