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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: 2. mer- 'to flicker, shimmer'

Semantic Field: to Shine, Glisten

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	mi(e)rce/myrce	n.neut	mirk, murk	IEW/ASD
	morgen	n.masc	morrow, morning	W7
Middle English:	amorwe	adv	on the next day	MEV
	conformen	vb	to conform	W7
	deformen	vb	to deform	W7
	forme	n	form	W7
	informen	vb	to inform	W7
	mere	adj	mere	W7
	mirke	n	mirk	W7
	morwen, morn, morning	n	morn, morning	W7
	reformen	vb	to reform	W7
	transformen	vb	to transform	W7
English:	allelomorph	n	allele	AHD/W7
	amorphous	adj	shapeless, without form	TLL
	conform	vb	to bring into harmony/agreement	AHD/W7
	deform	vb	to spoil form of	AHD/W7
	filiform	adj	shaped like filament	AHD/W7
	-form	adj.sfx	resembling, in form/shape of	AHD/W7
	form	n	shape/structure (as distinguished from material)	AHD/W7
	formal	adj	re: essential structure/constitution	AHD/W7
	formant	n	band/component of speech sound	AHD/W7
	format	n	shape/size/general makeup	AHD/W7
	formula	n	set phrasings for use in ritual/ceremony	AHD/W7
	inform	vb	to impart material form to	AHD/W7
	mere	adj	absolute, undiminished	AHD/W7
	metamorphosis	n	change in physical form/structure/substance	AHD/W7
	mirk	n	murk	W7
	Mirkwood	prop.n	gloomy forest in Tolkien: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	mirky	adj	murky	W7
	morganatic	adj	re: marriage of social unequals where no titles/estates are shared	AHD
	morgen	n	Dutch/southern African land unit	AHD/W7
	morn	n	dawn	AHD/W7
	morning	n	dawn	AHD/W7
	-morph	sfx	form, shape, structure, appearance	AHD
	morpheme	n	meaningful linguistic unit	AHD/W7
	morph(o)-	pfx	form, shape, structure, appearance	AHD
	morphosis	n	manner in which organism changes form	AHD
	morrow	n	morning	AHD/W7
	murk	n	gloom, darkness	AHD/W7
	murky	adj	dark, gloomy	LRC
	platform	n	design, plan	AHD/W7
	reform	vb	to amend/improve (e.g. by change of form)	AHD/W7
	transform	vb	to change in structure/composition	AHD/W7
	uniform	adj	invariant, always having same form/manner/degree	AHD/W7
Scots English:	mirk	n	murk	ASD
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	morn	n	morn	ASD
Dutch:	morgen	n	morning	W7
Old Saxon:	mirki	adj	murky	LRC
	morgan	n	morning	ASD
Old High German:	morgan	n.masc	morning	W7
German:	Allelomorph	n	allelomorph	AHD
	Format	n.neut	format	W7
	Morgen	n.masc	morning	W7
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	morginn	n.masc	morning	LRC
	myrkr	adj	murky	LRC
Old Icelandic:	myrkvi	n.masc	murk	LRC
	Myrk-viðr	prop.n.masc	east Europe forest, lit. Murk-wood	LRC
Icelandic:	mjörkvi	n	murk, thick fog	ASD
	morginn	n	morning	ASD
	myrkr	n.neut	murk	ASD
Danish:	morgen	n	morning	ASD
	mörke	n	murk	ASD
Swedish:	morgon	n	morning	ASD
	mörker	n	murk	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	maúrgins	n.str.masc	morning	LRC
Italic
Latin:	conformo, conformare	vb	to shape	W7
	deformo, deformare	vb	to deform	W7
	forma	n.fem	form, shape, beauty	W7
	-formis	sfx	shaped	W7
	formo, formare, formavi, formatus	vb	to form, shape	W7
	formula	n.fem	beauty, formula	W7
	informo, informare	vb	to form, fashion	W7
	merus	adj	pure, unmixed	W7
	metamorphosis	n.fem	metamorphosis	W7
	reformo, reformare	vb	to form again	W7
	transformo, transformare	vb	to change form	W7
	uniformis	adj	of one shape	W7
Portuguese:	forma	n	form	TLL
Spanish:	horma	n	form	TLL
Old French:	forme	n.fem	form, shape	W7
Middle French:	conformer	vb	to conform	W7
	deformer	vb	to deform	W7
	enformer	vb	to inform	W7
	plate-forme	n.fem	diagram, map, flat form	W7
	reformer	vb	to form again	W7
	uniforme	adj	uniform	W7
French:	format	n.masc	format	W7
	forme	n	form	TLL
	morphème	n.masc	morpheme	W7
Italian:	forma	n	form	TLL
Baltic
Latvian:	pamirkskinat, pamirkskinu, pamirkskinaju	vb	to blink	LRC
Hellenic
Greek:	amorphos	adj	amorphous	AHD
	metamorphóô	vb	to transform	LRC
	metamorphosis	n.fem	metamorphosis, transformation	W7
	morphe	n.fem	form	W7

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
pfx	=	prefix
prop	=	proper
sfx	=	suffix
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)
IEW	=	Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
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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