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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.

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Pokorny Etymon: medhi-, medhio- 'middle'

Semantic Field: Middle

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	mæce/mece	n.masc	sword, blade	GED/ASD
	middan	prep	amid	W7
	middan-eard	n.masc	world, lit. middle-earth	LRC
	midde	adj	mid	W7
	middel	adj	middle	W7
	midde-weard	adv	middling, lit. mid-ward	LRC
	onmiddan	prep	amid	W7
Middle English:	amidde	prep	amid	MEV
	amiddes	prep/adv	amidst; in the midst	MEV
	mediate	adj	mediate	W7
	mene	adj	mean	W7
	mid	adj/prep	mid	W7
	middel	adj	middle	W7
	middes/amidde(s)	prep	amid(st)	W7
	middest	n	midst	W7
	moite	n	moiety	W7
English:	amid(st)	prep	(from) among, in(to) the middle of	AHD/W7
	intermediate	adj	between extremes, re: middle place/degree	AHD/W7
	mean	adj	middling, moderate, intermediate	AHD/W7
	mean	n	mid-point, something intervening/intermediate	AHD/W7
	medal	n	metal disk bearing religious emblem/picture	AHD/W7
	Mede	prop.n	Bree calendar's July in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	medial	adj	re: middle	AHD
	median	adj	medial, being in middle/intermediate position	AHD/W7
	mediastinum	n	irregular median septum of thoracic cavity	AHD/W7
	mediate	adj	occupying middle position	AHD/W7
	mediate	vb	to interpose between parties to reconcile them	AHD/W7
	mediterranean	n	nearly/completely surrounded by dry land	AHD
	medium	n	something in middle position	AHD/W7
	mezzaluna	n	crescent-shaped knife with 2 handles	AHD
	mezzanine	n	low-ceiling story of building between main stories	AHD/W7
	mezzotint	n	manner of engraving steel/copper	AHD/W7
	mid	adj	being in middle/midst	AHD/W7
	middle	adj	central, medial, equally distant from extremes	AHD/W7
	Middle-earth	prop.n	world setting in Tolkien: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	Midgard	prop.n	world inhabited by humans (Germanic mythology)	LRC
	midst	n	interior, middle, central part/point	AHD/W7
	milieu	n	setting, environment	AHD/W7
	mizzen	n	fore-and-aft sail mounted on mizzenmast	AHD
	mizzenmast	n	sailing ship's 3rd mast aft	AHD
	moiety	n	half, either of two equal parts	AHD/W7
	mullion	n	vertical member dividing window/opening	AHD
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	middel	adj	middle	ASD
Old Saxon:	maki	n.masc	sword	GED
	middil-gard	adj	world, lit. middle-earth	ASD
Old High German:	mitti(l)	adj	middle	W7/ASD
German:	Mitte	n.fem	middle, center	LRC
N-Germanic
Runic:	makija	n	sword	GED
Old Norse:	mið-garðr	n.masc	world, Midgard, lit. middle-yard, middle-earth	W7
	miðr	adj	middle	LRC
Old Icelandic:	mækir	n.masc	sword	GED
Icelandic:	meðal-	adj	middle	ASD
Danish:	medens	conj	while	TLL
	mellem	prep	amid, between	TLL
Swedish:	medan	conj	while	TLL
	mellan	prep	amid, between	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	meki	n.acc.sg	short sword	GED
	midjis	adj	middle	LRC
	midjun-gards	n.str.masc	world, Midgard, lit. middle-yard, middle-earth	LRC
Crimean Gothic:	mycha	n	sword	CGo
Italic
Latin:	intermedius	adj	placed in between	W7
	medianus	adj	median	W7
	mediastinus	n.masc	drudge	W7
	medius, media, medium	adj	(in the) middle	W7
Vulgar Latin:	medalis	adj	half	W7
Late Latin:	medialis	adj	of the middle	W7
	medietas, medietatis	n.fem	middle, half	W7
Medieval Latin:	intermediatus	vb.ptc	placed in between, in the middle	W7
	mediatus	vb.ptc	intermediate	W7
	medio, mediare, mediavi, mediatus	vb	to be intermediate	W7
New Latin:	mediastinum	n.neut	irregular septum of thoracic cavity	W7
Old French:	mi	adj	middle, half	W7
	milieu	n.masc	midst	W7
Middle French:	médaille	n.fem	medal	W7
	meien	adj	mean	W7
	moitié	n.fem	moiety	W7
French:	mezzanine	n.fem	mezzanine	W7
	milieu	n.masc	center, (particular) social environment	W7
Old Italian:	medaglia	n.fem	medal, coin worth 1/2 denarius	W7
Italian:	mèzza	n.fem	half-hour	W7
	mezzanino	n.masc	mezzanine floor	W7
	mezzano	adj	middle	W7
	mezzatinta	n.fem	half-tint, off-shade	W7
	mèzzo	n.masc	half, middle, medium	W7
Hellenic
Greek:	mesos	adj	middle, central	W7
Armenian
Classical Armenian:	mej	n	midst, middle	LRC

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
acc	=	accusative (case)
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
conj	=	conjunction
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
prep	=	preposition
prop	=	proper
ptc	=	participle
sg	=	singular (number)
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)
CGo	=	MacDonald Stearns, Jr: Crimean Gothic (1978)
GED	=	Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
MEV	=	J.R.R. Tolkien: A Middle English Vocabulary (1922)
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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