The University of Texas at Austin; College of Liberal Arts

Hans C. Boas, Director :: PCL 5.556, 1 University Station S5490 :: Austin, TX 78712 :: 512-471-4566

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: ghren- 'to grind, rub, stroke hard'

Semantic Field: to Rub

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	grindan/gryndan	vb.str	to grind	W7/ASD
	grist	n	grist	W7
	grund	n.masc	ground, (surface of) earth	LRC
Middle English:	grinden	vb	to grind	W7
	grist	n	grist	W7
	ground	n	ground	W7
	refreynen	vb	to refrain	W7
English:	chondr(o)-	pfx	cartilage	AHD
	chondromalacia	n	abnormal softening/degeneration of joint cartilage	AHD
	fraise	n	obstacle of pointed stakes in rampart	AHD/W7
	frenulum	n	small connective membrane fold	AHD
	frenum	n	connective membrane fold serving to support/restrain	AHD/W7
	grind, ground	vb.str	to reduce to powder via friction	AHD/W7
	grist	n	grain for grinding	AHD/W7
	ground	n	bottom (of water body)	W7
	hypochondria	n	depression of mind/spirits caused by imaginary physical ailment	AHD/W7
	mitochondrion	n	chondriosome: body found in cells	AHD/W7
	refrain	vb	to curb, restrain	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	grund	n	ground	ASD
Dutch:	grintzand	n	gravel	GED
Old Saxon:	grund	n	ground	ASD
Middle Low German:	grint	n.str.masc	scab	GED
Old High German:	grint	n.str.masc	scab	GED
	grunt	n.str.masc	ground	GED
German:	Grund	n.masc	ground	ASD
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	grund	n.fem	ground; field, (surface of) earth	LRC
Old Icelandic:	grandi	n.masc	sandbank in water	GED
	grunn	n.neut	shallow place	GED
	grunn(r)	n.masc	ground	GED
	grunnr	adj	shallow	GED
Icelandic:	grunnr	n	ground	ASD
Danish:	grund	n	ground, basis	TLL
Swedish:	grand	n	sand; scab	GED
	grund	n	ground, basis	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	afgrundiþa	n	abyss	ASD
	*grinda-fraþjis	adj	faint-hearted	GED
	grundu-waddjus	n.masc	foundation	GED
Italic
Latin:	firmus	adj	firm, solid	W7
	frendo, frendere	vb	to grind, crush	W7
	frenum	n.neut	bit, reins, bridle; curb, restraint	W7
	refringo, refringere	vb	to check, destroy, break up	W7
Late Latin:	hypochondria	n.fem	upper abdomen	W7
New Latin:	hypochondria	n.fem	excessive fear of disease	W7
	mitochondrion	n.neut	mitochondrion	W7
Middle French:	refraindre	vb	to resound, restrain	W7
French:	fraise	n	fraise; wattle; countersink	W7
Baltic
Lithuanian:	grándau	vb	to rub, scrape	GED
	gréndziu	vb	to rub, scrape	GED
Hellenic
Greek:	xêraínô	vb	to dry up	LRC
	hypochondria	n.fem	parts under cartilage (of breastbone)	W7
	chóndros	n.masc	grain, groat(s); cartilage	GED
	chraínô	vb	to smear, paint	GED

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
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)
GED	=	Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

Nearby etyma: previous | next