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Indo-European Lexicon

PIE Etymon and IE Reflexes

Below we display: a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) etymon adapted from Pokorny, with our own English gloss; our Semantic Field assignment(s) for the etymon, linked to information about the field(s); an optional Comment; and Reflexes (derived words) in various Indo-European languages, organized by family/group in west-to-east order where Germanic is split into West/North/East families and English, our language of primary emphasis, is artificially separated from West Germanic. IE Reflexes appear most often as single words with any optional letter(s) enclosed in parentheses; but alternative full spellings are separated by '/' and "principal parts" appear in a standard order (e.g. masculine, feminine, and neuter forms) separated by commas.

Reflexes are annotated with: Part-of-Speech and/or other Grammatical feature(s); a short Gloss which, especially for modern English reflexes, may be confined to the oldest sense; and some Source citation(s) with 'LRC' always understood as editor. Keys to PoS/Gram feature abbreviations and Source codes appear below the reflexes; at the end are links to the previous/next etyma [in Pokorny's alphabetic order] that have reflexes.

Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings may appreciate the source & meaning tips that pop up when the mouse pointer hovers over a non-obvious word or name that he coined from Indo-European (usually Old English or Old Norse) stock. But only reflexes of PIE etyma can be included, and these tend to concentrate in the vocabulary of Rohan and the Shire.

All reflex pages are currently under active construction; as time goes on, corrections may be made and/or more etyma & reflexes may be added.

Note: this page is for systems/browsers lacking Unicode^® support, or having less than full Unicode 2.0 font support. Versions of this page rendered in alternate character sets are available via links (see Unicode 3 and Unicode 2) in the left margin.

Pokorny Etymon: aiu-, aiu- 'vitality, life force'

Semantic Field: to Live; Living; Life

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	a	adv	aye	GED
	æ/æw(e)	n.str.fem	law, marriage	GED/ASD
	æfre/æfer	adv	ever	W7/ASD
	ece/æce	adj	eternal	GED/ASD
	na	adv	never	GED
	næfre	adv	never	W7
	o	adv	aye	GED
Middle English:	age	n	age	W7
	ay(e)/ai/ei	adv	aye	W7/CDC
	eternal	adj	eternal	W7
	eterne	adj	eterne	W7
	eternite	n	eternity	W7
	ever	adv	ever	W7
	nay	adv	nay	W7
	never	adv	never	W7
	sempiternal	adv	sempiternal	W7
English:	(a)eon	n	age, long period of time	AHD/W7
	age	n	lifetime, stage/period of life	AHD/W7
	ay(e)	adv	yes, indeed; ever, always, forever	AHD/W7/CDC
	coetaneous	adj	coeval	AHD/W7
	coeval	adj	of equal age	AHD/W7
	eternal	adj	undying, everlasting	AHD/W7
	eterne	adj	eternal	AHD/W7
	eternity	n	endlessness of time	AHD/W7
	ever	adv	always, forever	AHD/W7
	Evermind	prop.n	Rohan (grave) flower in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	hygiene	n	personal cleanliness	AHD/W7
	longevity	n	lifespan, (long) time to live	AHD/W7
	medieval	adj	re: the Middle Ages	AHD/W7
	nay	adv	no, lit. not ay(e)	AHD/W7
	never	adv	lit. not ever	AHD/W7
	primeval	adj	earliest, original, most ancient	AHD/W7
	sempiternal	adj	eternal	AHD/W7
	utopia	n	ideal/imaginary place	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	a	n	law	CDC
	e	n.str.masc	law	GED
	ewa	n.fem	law	ASD
	ewe	n.wk.fem	law	GED
	ewig/ewch/iowich/iowigh	adj	eternal	GED/ASD
Dutch:	eeuwig	adj	eternal	ASD
Old Saxon:	eo/eu	n.str.masc	law	GED
	eo/(g)io	adv	aye	CDC
	ewan	adj	eternal	GED
	ewig	adj	eternal	GED
	ewitha	n.str.fem	eternity	GED
Old High German:	e(h)a	n.fem	law, custom, marriage	ASD
	ewa	n.fem	law, marriage, religious decree	GED
	ewi	n.fem	law, marriage, religious decree	GED
	ewida	n.str.fem	eternity	GED
	ewig	adj	eternal	GED
	ewin	n.str.fem	eternity	GED
	io/eo	adv	aye, always	GED/CDC
	neo/nio	adv	nay, never	GED
Middle High German:	e(we)	n.fem	law, custom, marriage	ASD
	ewic/ewec	adj	eternal	ASD
	ie/je	adv	aye	CDC
German:	Ehe	n.fem	marriage	ASD
	ewig	adj	eternal	LRC
	Hygiene	n.fem	hygiene	LRC
	ja	adv	aye: yes	LRC
	je	adv	aye: ever	CDC
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	ei	adv	aye: ever	W7
	eigi	adv	not	LRC
	nei	adv	nay	W7
	samr	adj	same	W7
	æ	adv	aye: ever	LRC
Old Icelandic:	ei	adv	aye	GED
	lang-ær	adj	long-lived	GED
	æ	adv	aye: ever	GED
	æfi	n.str.fem	age, life	GED
	ævi	n.str.fem	age, life	GED
Icelandic:	ei/ey	n	aye	CDC
Danish:	evig	adj	eternal	ASD
Swedish:	evig	adj	eternal	ASD
E-Germanic
Gothic:	aiw	adv	aye	CDC
	*aiws	n.str.masc	aeon, lifetime, eternity	GED
	*ajukduþs	n.fem	eternity (as a feature of existence)	GED
	halis-aiw	adv	hardly ever	GED
Italic
Old Latin:	aeuom/aevom	n.neut	aeon	GED/CDC
Latin:	aetas, aetatis	n.fem	age, period	W7
	aeternitas, aeternitatis	n.fem	eternity	W7
	aeternus	adj	eternal	GED
	aevum	n.neut	aeon	GED/IEW
	aevus	n.masc	aeon	GED/IEW
	coaevus	adj	coeval	W7
	longaevus	adj	long-lived	GED
	primaevus	adj	primeval	W7
	sempiternus	adj	eternal	W7
	vivus	adj	living	W7
Vulgar Latin:	aetaticum	adj	re: age	W7
Late Latin:	aeternalis	adj	eternal	W7
	longaevitas	n.fem	longevity	W7
	sempiternalis	adj	sempiternal	W7
Old French:	aage	n.masc	age	W7
Middle French:	eternal	adj	eternal	W7
	eterne	adj	eternal	W7
	eternité	n.fem	eternity	W7
French:	hygiène	n.fem	cleanliness, healthy living	W7
Hellenic
Homeric Greek:	ou/ouk/ouch	adv	no, not	W7
Greek:	aeí	adv	aye: ever	LRC
	aieí	adv	aye: ever	LRC
	aién	adv	always	GED
	aiôn	n.masc	aeon, life(time)	GED
	ai[F]és	adv	always	GED
	dênai(F)ós	adj	long-lived	GED
	hygieinos	adj	healthful	W7
	hygies	adj	healthy	W7
Indic
Vedic:	ayuna	n.loc	life	GED
	ayuni	n.inst	life	GED
Sanskrit:	ayu-	n	life, life force	GED
	eva	n.masc	course, manner	ASD
Tocharian
Tocharian A:	aym-	n	life, spirit	GED

Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
fem	=	feminine (gender)
inst	=	instrumental (case)
loc	=	locative (case)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
prop	=	proper
str	=	strong (inflection)
wk	=	weak (inflection)

Key to information Source codes (always with 'LRC' as editor):

Code		Citation
AHD	=	Calvert Watkins: The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 2nd ed. (2000)
ASD	=	Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller: An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (1898)
CDC	=	W.D. Whitney and B.E. Smith: The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (1889-1911)
GED	=	Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986)
IEW	=	Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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