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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.

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: ghen- 'to grind, crack open, gnaw to pieces'

Semantic Fields: to Grind; to Open; to Bite

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	gnæt(t)	n.masc	gnat	W7/ASD
	gnagan	vb.str	to gnaw	RPN/ASD
	gnidan	vb	to rub, pulverize	RPN
	gnidel	n	pestle	RPN
Middle English:	gnacchen	vb	to gnash	RPN
	gnasten	vb	to gnash teeth	RPN
	gnastinge	vb.ger	gnashing	RPN
	gnat	n	gnat	W7
	gnawen	vb	to gnaw	W7
English:	gnat	n	small two-winged fly	AHD/W7
	(g)natter	vb.dial	to fret, grumble	AHD/OED
	gnaw	vb	to bite/chew with teeth	AHD/W7
	nag	vb	to complain, find fault constantly	AHD/W7
	nosh	n	snack, light meal	AHD
	nosh	vb	to eat snack/light meal	AHD
W-Germanic
East Frisian:	gnisen/knisen	vb	to gnash teeth	RPN
Old Saxon:	gnagan	vb	to gnaw	RPN
Old High German:	(g)nagan/ginagan	vb	to gnaw	RPN/ASD
	gnitan	vb	to rub, break	ASD
German:	nagen	vb	to gnaw	LRC
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	gnaga	vb	to gnaw	W7
	gnýr	n.masc	clash, din	LRC
Old Icelandic:	gnaga	vb	to gnaw	RPN
	gnastan	n	a gnashing	RPN
	gniða	vb	to rub, scrape	RPN
	gníst	n	a gnashing	RPN
	gnísta	vb	to gnash teeth, snarl	RPN
	gnístan	n	gnashing of teeth	RPN
	gnúa	vb	to rub	RPN
Icelandic:	(g)naga	vb	to gnaw	ASD
Old Danish:	gnistre	vb	to grate	RPN
Danish:	gnide	vb	to rub, break	ASD
Swedish:	gnaga	vb	to gnaw	RPN
	gnissla	vb	to grate	RPN
	gno	vb	to rub	RPN
Hellenic
Greek:	chnaûma	n	slice, tidbit	RPN
	chnaúô	vb	to nibble	RPN
	chníei	vb	to break/crush into small pieces	RPN
Iranian
Avestan:	aiwi-gnixta-	adj	gnawed, nibbled, eaten	RPN

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
dial	=	dialectal
ger	=	gerund(ive)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
str	=	strong (inflection)
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)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
OED	=	James A.H. Murray et al: The Oxford English Dictionary (1933)
RPN	=	Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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