Tomaschek interpreted that Zibel- and Zbel- were the same word, although he believed the former to be the older form (cf. Thracian king Ζιβέλμιος, or ). He also derived Zbel- from a Proto-Indo-European stem *ģʰeib-. Further descendants would include Lithuanian žaibas "lightning", verb žibėti "to shine, to glow", and possibly Croatian zúblja "torch" and Slovene zubelj "flame".
