Keywords: endoethnonym, exoethnonym, etymon, derivative, loan, prothesis, apheresis

The forms of the exoethnonym Russian in Caucasian, Turkish, European languages and Ossetian have varied initial labial elements, usually classified as prothetic sounds. Presuming that such forms preserved by different languages, namely Ossetian, the descendant of Scythian and Alanian, are more etymological, allows to trace the origin of the ethnonym to the common Indo-European root *weraz/*wiros «man, human».