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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.

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Pokorny Etymon: 4. me-, mo- 'big, important'

Semantic Field: Big, Large, Great

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Old Irish:	mor	adj	large	W7
English
Old English:	ma/mæ	adj/adv	more	W7/ASD
	mæest	adj.sup	most	W7
	mara	adj.comp	more	W7
Middle English:	more	adj.comp	more	W7
	most	adj.sup	most	W7
English:	more	adj.comp	greater quantity of	AHD/W7
	most	adj.sup	majority of	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	ma	adv/n	more	ASD
Dutch:	meer	adj.comp	more	TLL
	meest	adj.sup	most	TLL
Old Saxon:	mer	adv/n	more	ASD
Old High German:	meist	adj.sup	most	W7
	mer	adj.comp/adv	more	W7/ASD
German:	mehr	adj.comp	more	LRC
	meist	adj.sup	most	TLL
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	mæra, mærað	vb	to praise	LRC
	mærr	adj	famous	LRC
Icelandic:	meir	adv	more	ASD
Danish:	mere	adj.comp	more	TLL
	mest	adj.sup	most	TLL
Swedish:	mera	adj.comp	more	TLL
	mest	adj.sup	most	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	mais	adv	more	ASD

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
comp	=	comparative
n	=	noun
sup	=	superlative
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
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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