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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: 3b. pel-, pelu-, ple- 'to wrap, cover; cloth; fell, pelt'

Semantic Fields: to Wind, Wrap; to Cover; Cloth; Skin, Hide

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Irish:	peall	n.masc	couch, covering	W7
	pillion	n.fem	couch, covering	W7
	pillin	n.fem	pack-saddle	W7/IED
Scots Gaelic:	peall	n.masc	couch, covering	W7
	pillean/pillion	n.masc	cushion	W7/GE
English
Old English:	felan/fiolan	vb.str.III	to stick, adhere; reach, penetrate	ASD
	fel(l)	n.neut	fell, fur	RPN
	feolan, fealh, fulgon, folen	vb.str.III	to stick, adhere; reach, penetrate	LRC
	film(en)/fylmen	n.neut	film	RPN
Middle English:	erisipila	n	erysipelas	W7
	fell	n	fell	W7
	filme	n	film	W7
	pelt	n	pelt	W7
	peltry	n	peltry	W7
	surplis	n	surplice	W7
English:	erysipelas	n	acute febrile disease caused by hemolytic streptococcus	AHD/W7
	fell	n	hide, skin, pelt	AHD/W7
	film	n	pellicle, thin skin/membranous covering	AHD/W7
	Hasufel	prop.n	Aragorn's horse in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	microfilm	n	photographic record of reduced-size image(s)	W7
	pelisse	n	long coat/cloak made/lined/trimmed with fur	AHD/W7
	pellicle	n	thin skin/film	AHD/W7
	pelt	n	(animal) skin/hide with hair/wool/fur	AHD/W7
	peltate	adj	shield-shaped	AHD/W7
	peltry	n	furs, pelts	AHD/W7
	pillion	n	light saddle for women	AHD/W7
	surplice	n	loose white knee-length outer vestment worn by clergymen	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	bi-fella	vb	to conceal, commit	RPN
	fel	n.neut	fell	ASD
Dutch:	pels	n	pelt, fur	TLL
	vel	n.neut	fell	ASD
Old Saxon:	fel	n.neut	fell	ASD
Old High German:	fel	n.neut	fell	RPN
Middle High German:	vël	n.neut	fell	ASD
German:	Fell	n.neut	fell	ASD
	Pelz	n	pelt, fur	TLL
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	fela	vb	to hide; commend, make over	LRC
Old Icelandic:	fjall	n.neut	fell	RPN
	fylgsni	n	hiding-place	RPN
Icelandic:	fell	n.neut	fell	ASD
Danish:	pels	n	pelt, fur	TLL
Swedish:	päls	n	pelt, fur	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	filhan	vb	to bury, conceal	RPN
	fill	n.neut	fell	ASD
Italic
Latin:	palla	n	garment worn by women of Rome	RPN
	pallium	n	cover, covering	RPN
	pallula	n	small cloak/mantle	RPN
	pellicius	adj	made of pelt(s)	W7
	pellicula	n.fem	small fell/pelt	W7
	pellis, pellis	n.fem	fell/pelt	LRC
	pelta	n.fem	small shield (made of hide)	W7
Late Latin:	pellicia	n.fem	pelisse	W7
	pellicius	adj	made of skin	W7
Medieval Latin:	pellicium	n.neut	coat of skins	W7
	pellicula	n.fem	pellicle	W7
	superpellicium	n.neut	surplice	W7
New Latin:	peltatus	vb.ptc	armed with shield	W7
Old French:	surpliz	n.masc	surplice	W7
Anglo-French:	pelterie	n.fem	fell, fur	W7
Middle French:	pellicule	n.fem	pellicle, film	W7
French:	pelisse	n.fem	type of fur coat	W7
Baltic
Old Prussian:	pelkis	n	cloak	RPN
Lithuanian:	pleve	n	membrane	RPN
Slavic
Russian:	pleva	n	membrane	RPN
Hellenic
Greek:	erysipelas	adj	red skinned	W7
	-pelas	afx	fell	W7
	pélla	n.fem	fell, leather	ASD
	pelloráphos	n	sewing skins together	RPN
	pélma	n	sole (of foot/shoe)	RPN
	pelma	n.neut	sole of the foot	W7
	pelte	n.fem	small shield (made of hide)	W7
	ráptô	vb	to sew together	RPN
Indic
Sanskrit:	pata-h	n	cloth, garment, blanket	RPN
	patála-m	n	veil, cover	RPN

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
III	=	class 3
adj	=	adjective
afx	=	affix
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
prop	=	proper
ptc	=	participle
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)
GE	=	Colin Mark: The Gaelic-English Dictionary (2003)
IED	=	Patrick S. Dinneen: An Irish-English Dictionary (1927)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
RPN	=	Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002)
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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