Strange as it may at first sight appear, this word is merely another form of our word father, of the German vater, and of the French pere.

The syllable ets is the ordinary Russian termination denoting the agent, corresponding to the English and German ending er, as we see in such words as--kup-ets (a buyer), plov-ets (a swimmer), and many others.
The root ot is a mutilated form of vot, as we see in the word otchina (a paternal inheritance), which is frequently written votchina.

Now vot is evidently the same root as the German vat in Vater, and the English fath in father.

Quod erat demonstrandum.
All this is simple enough, and goes to prove the fundamental identity, or rather the community of origin, of the Slav and Teutonic languages; but it will be readily understood that etymological analogies so carefully disguised are of little practical use in helping us to acquire a foreign tongue.

Besides this, the grammatical forms and constructions in Russian are very peculiar, and present a great many strange irregularities.