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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: ghrei- : ghrui- : ghri-, and lit. ghrei- 'to smear over'

Semantic Field: to Rub

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Welsh:	cramen	n	scab	W7
English
Old English:	agrisan	vb	to fear	W7
	crisma	n.masc	chrism	W7/ASD
	Crist	prop.n	Christ	W7
	cristen	n	Christian	W7
	cristnian	vb	to christen	W7
	grima	n.masc	mask, visor, helmet; ghost, specter	ASD
	gris-	pfx	fearful	W7
	grislic/gryslic	adj	grisly	W7/ASD
Middle English:	cre(i)me	n	cream	W7
	Crist	prop.n	Christ	W7
	cristnen	vb	to christen	W7
	grim	n	grime	AHD
	grisly	adj	grisly	W7
English:	chrism	n	consecrated oil used in liturgical churches for baptism/confirmation/ordination	AHD/W7
	Christ	prop.n	[transliterated Greek title meaning] anointed one	AHD/W7
	christen	vb.trans	to baptize	AHD/W7
	Christian	prop.n	adherent of Christianity	LRC
	cream	n	yellowish part of milk having 18-40 percent butterfat	AHD/W7
	Gríma	prop.n	spy a.k.a. Wormtongue in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	grime	n	dirt/soot/smut adhering to/embedded in surface	AHD/W7
	grisly	adj	gruesome, horrible	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	gryslik	adj	grisly	ASD
Middle Dutch:	greme	n.fem	dirt, smut	IEW
	grime	n	soot; mask	W7/AHD
Flemish:	grijm	n	soot; mask	W7
Old Saxon:	grima	n	mask, helmet; specter	IEW
Old High German:	grisenlih/grisenlich	adj	grisly, terrible	W7/ASD
German:	grässlich	adj	grisly	ASD
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	gríma	n.fem	mask; enigma; shadow of night	LRC
Italic
Latin:	christianus	adj	Christian	W7
	Christus	n.masc	Christ	W7
Late Latin:	chrisma	n.neut	ointment	W7
Middle French:	craime/cresme	n.fem	cream	W7
Hellenic
Greek:	chriein	vb	to anoint	W7
	chrisma	n.neut	ointment	W7
	christianos	adj	re: adherent of Christianity	W7
	Christós	prop.adj/n	(re:) Christ	LRC
	christós	n.masc	anointed one	LRC

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
pfx	=	prefix
prop	=	proper
trans	=	transitive
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)
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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