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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: 2. nau- : nuu- : nu- 'death; corpse'

Semantic Fields: to Die; Dead; Death; Corpse, Body

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	ne(o)d/ni(e)d	n.fem	need, distress, necessity; (name for) N-rune	W7/ASD
Middle English:	ned	n	need	W7
English:	Nár	prop.n	dwarf in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	Narvi	prop.n	dwarf in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	narwhal	n	arctic cetacean	AHD/W7
	need	n	obligation, necessary duty	AHD/W7
	nudge	vb.trans	to touch/push gently	AHD/W7
	nudnik	n	boring pest	AHD
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	ned	n	need, necessity	ASD
Old Saxon:	nod	n	need, necessity	ASD
Old High German:	not	n	need, distress	W7
German:	Narwal	n.masc	narwhal	LRC
	Not	n.fem	need, emergency	TLL
Yiddish:	nudnik	n	boring pest	LRC
N-Germanic
Runic:	*naudiz	n	need, necessity; (name for) N-rune	LRC
Old Norse:	Narfi	prop.n	Narfi (Voluspa dwarf)	ICE
	nauð(r)	n.fem	harm, distress, poverty	LRC
	náhvalr	n	narwhal, lit. corpse-whale	W7
	Nár	prop.n.masc	Nar (Voluspa dwarf)	TPE
	nár	n.masc	corpse, body, cadaver, dead man	IEW/ICE
Icelandic:	nauð	n	need, necessity	ASD
Norwegian:	narhval	n	narwhal	W7
Danish:	narhval	n	narwhal	W7
Swedish:	narval	n	narwhal	W7
E-Germanic
Gothic:	nauþs	n	need, necessity	ASD
Slavic
Polish:	nuda	n	boredom	AHD

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
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)
ICE	=	Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson: An Icelandic-English Dictionary (1874)
IEW	=	Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
TPE	=	Lee M. Hollander: The Poetic Edda (1962)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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