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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: bheg-, bheng- 'to bang, break, smash'

Semantic Field: to Break

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Old Irish:	bongid	vb	to break, reap	RPN
English
Old English:	banc	n.fem	bank	CDC
	benc	n.fem	bench	W7/ASD
Middle English:	bank(e)/bonk(e)/bonkke/banc	n	bank	W7/MEV/CDC
	benk/bynk/bench	n	bench	CDC/W7
English:	bang	vb	to bump, strike against	AHD/W7
	bank	n	hill, ridge; pile, mound	AHD/W7
	bank	n	bench for (galley) rowers	AHD/W7
	bank	n	money/finance business	W7
	Banks	prop.n	hobbit surname in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	banquet	n	great/ceremonious feast	AHD/W7
	banquette	n	raised way inside parapet/trench for gun(ner)s	AHD/W7
	bantling	n	very young child	AHD/W7
	bench	n	long seat for two/more persons	AHD/W7
	bhang	n	hemp, cannabis	AHD/W7
	bunco	n	swindling game/scheme	AHD/W7
	bungle	vb	to act/work awkwardly/clumsily	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Dutch:	bank	n.fem	bank: bench	ASD
	bengel	n	bell	CDC
	bengelen	vb	to ring a bell	CDC
Old Saxon:	bank	n.fem	bank: bench	ASD
	benki	n	bench	CDC
Low German:	bangeln	vb.freq	to bang, beat, strike	CDC
	bangen	vb	to bang, beat, strike	CDC
Old High German:	banch/panch	n.fem	bench	CDC/ASD
	bank	n	bank: bench	W7
Middle High German:	banc/bank	n	bank: bench	ASD/CDC
	bengel	n	club	CDC
German:	bank	n.fem	bank: bench	W7/ASD
	bänkling	n	bastard	W7
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	bakki	n	bank: bench	W7
	bang	n	a hammering	CDC
	bekkr	n.masc	bank: bench	ASD
Icelandic:	banga	vb	to bang, hammer	W7
	*banki	n	bank	CDC
	bekkr	n	bench	CDC
Norwegian:	bank	n	a beating	CDC
	banka	vb	to bang, beat	CDC
Danish:	bakke	n	bank: hill, hillock	CDC
	bank	n	a beating	CDC
	banke	vb	to bang, beat	CDC
	bænk	n	bank: bench	CDC
	bänk	n	bank: bench	ASD
Old Swedish:	bånga	vb	to bang, hammer	CDC
Swedish:	backe	n	bank: hill, hillock	CDC
	bång	n	a hammering	CDC
	bänk	n	bank: bench	ASD
Italic
Middle Latin:	bancus	n.masc	bank: bench	CDC
Portuguese:	banca	n	bench	CDC
	banco	n	bank: business	CDC
Spanish:	banca	n.fem	bank: bench	W7
	banco	n	bank: business	CDC
	banquete	n	banquet	CDC
Old French:	banc	n	bank: bench	AHD
	banquet	n.dim	banquet	AHD
Middle French:	banquet	n.masc	banquet	W7
French:	banc/banque	n	bank: bench	CDC
	banc	n	bank: business	CDC
	banquet	n	banquet	CDC
	banquette	n.fem	bench, banquette	W7
Old Occitan:	banc	n	bank: business	CDC
	banca	n	bank: bench	CDC
Provençal:	banca	n	bank: bench	AHD
	banqueta	n.fem.dim	small bench	W7
Old Italian:	banca	n.fem	bank: bench	W7
	banchetto	n.masc	banquet	W7
Italian:	banca	n	bank: bench	CDC
	banchetto	n	banquet	CDC
	banco	n	bank: business	CDC
Armenian
Armenian:	bekanem	vb	to break	RPN
Iranian
Persian:	bang	n	bhang	CDC
Indic
Sanskrit:	bhanákti	vb	to break, shatter	RPN
	bhanga	n	bhang	CDC
Hindi:	bhang/bhung	n	bhang	W7/CDC

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
dim	=	diminutive
fem	=	feminine (gender)
freq	=	frequentative (aspect)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
prop	=	proper
vb	=	verb

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)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
MEV	=	J.R.R. Tolkien: A Middle English Vocabulary (1922)
RPN	=	Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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