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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.

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. se(i)- : sui- : si-, se- : su-, and sei- : si- 'to sow, dispatch, disseminate, let fall'

Semantic Fields: to Sow; Seed; to Strew, Spread Out

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Middle Breton:	hir	adj	long	W7
	menhir	n.masc	long stone	W7
Welsh:	had	n	seed	LRC
English
Old English:	sæd	n.neut	seed, fruit, sowing	RPN
	sawan	vb.str	to sow	RPN/ASD
	sid	adj	wide, long, ample, extensive	ASD
	side	n.fem	side, flank	ASD
	siþ	adv	late, afterwards	ASD
	siððan/syððan	adv	since, afterwards	ASD
	siððon/seoððan	adv	since, afterwards	ASD
Middle English:	besyde/bisyde/beside/biside	adv/prep	beside	MEV
	season	n	season	W7
	seed	n	seed	W7
	seminary	n	seminary	W7
	sesoun	n	season	W7
	sesounen	vb	to season	W7
	side	n	side	W7
	sins	adv	since	W7
	sithen(s)	adv	since	W7
	sowen	vb	to sow	W7
English:	beside	adv/prep	hard by, at the side (of)	MEV
	colza	n	cole (herbaceous plant, esp. rape)	AHD/W7
	disseminate	vb	to spread about (like sowing seed)	AHD/W7
	inseminate	vb.trans	to sow	AHD/W7
	menhir	n	single upright rude monolith	AHD/W7
	season	n	natural/suitable time/occasion	AHD/W7
	season	vb	to improve taste by adding salt/condiment	AHD/W7
	seed	n	grain, ripened ovule of plant	AHD/W7
	seme	adj	sown, dotted, re: ornamental pattern of objects/figures	AHD/W7
	semen	n	viscid whitish fluid of male reproductive tract	AHD/W7
	seminary	n	environment in/from which something originates/propagates	AHD/W7
	serotinous	adj	late in flowering/developing	AHD/W7
	side	n	left/right part of trunk of body	AHD/W7
	silent	adj	making no utterance	AHD/W7
	since	adv	from definite past time til now	AHD/W7
	sith(ence)	adv.arch	since	AHD/W7
	soiree	n	evening party/reception	AHD/W7
	sow	vb	to plant/scatter seed for growth	AHD/W7
	syne	adv	ago, since then	AHD/W7
British English:	side	n	pretentiousness, swaggering/arrogant manner	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	sea	vb	to sow	ASD
	sed	n	seed	RPN
	side	n	side, flank	ASD
Middle Dutch:	coolsaet	n	cabbage seed	W7
	saet	n	seed	W7
Dutch:	koolzaad	n	cabbage seed	W7
	sedert	conj	since	TLL
	sinds	prep	since	TLL
	zaaien	vb	to sow	LRC
Old Saxon:	sad	n	seed	RPN
	saian	vb	to sow	RPN
	samo	n	seed	RPN
	sida	n	side, flank	ASD
	sið	adv	late	ASD
Old High German:	saen/sajan	vb	to sow	RPN/ASD
	samo	n	seed	RPN
	sat	n	seed, crop	ASD
	sawen	vb	to sow	RPN
	sid	adv	since	W7
	sita	n	side	W7
German:	Saat	n.fem	seed, crop	LRC
	säen	vb	to sow	LRC
	Same	n.masc	seed	LRC
	seit	adv/prep	since	ASD
	seitdem	conj	since	TLL
	Seite	n.fem	side	LRC
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	síð	adv	late	LRC
	siðan	adv	afterwards, since then	W7
Old Icelandic:	sá	vb	to sow, throw, scatter	RPN
	sáð	n	seed, corn, crop	RPN
	sæði	n	seed; [pl.] crops	RPN
Icelandic:	sá(ði)	vb	to sow	ASD
	sið	adv	late	ASD
	siða	n	side, flank	ASD
Danish:	sa	vb	to sow	LRC
	siden	prep/conj	since	TLL
Swedish:	sedan	prep/conj	since	TLL
	så	vb	to sow	RPN
	sådd	n	seed	RPN
E-Germanic
Gothic:	ana-silan	vb.wk	to cease, subside, grow calm	W7/GED
	manaseþs	n.str.fem	mankind, the world	LRC
	saian	vb.str.VII	to sow	LRC
	seithu	adv	late	ASD
	-seþs	n.sfx	-seed, -kind	RPN
	þanaseiþs	adv	still, further	LRC
Italic
Latin:	disseminatus	vb.ptc	scattered around	W7
	dissemino, disseminare	vb	to scatter around	W7
	inseminatus	vb.ptc	sown into	W7
	insemino, inseminare	vb	to sow into	W7
	pono, ponere, posui, positum	vb	to place, situate	LRC
	propono, proponere, proposui, propositum	vb	to point out, set forth	LRC
	satio, sationis	n.fem	(act of) sowing, planting	W7
	semen, seminis	n.neut	seed, semen; race	RPN
	sementis	n	sowing, planting	RPN
	seminarium	n.neut	seminary	W7
	semino, seminare	vb	to sow, produce, bring forth	W7
	sero, serere, sevi, satum	vb	to sow, plant	RPN
	sero	adv	late	LRC
	serotinus	adj	serotinous, coming late	W7
	serus	adj	late	W7
	silens, silentis	adj/vb.ptc	quiet, silent	W7
	sileo, silere	vb	to be silent	W7
	sino, sinere, sivi	vb	to allow, permit	LRC
New Latin:	semen	n.neut	seed, semen	W7
Portuguese:	semear	vb	to sow	TLL
Spanish:	sembrar	vb	to sow	TLL
Old French:	assaisoner	vb	to ripen, season	W7
	saison	n.fem	season	W7
Middle French:	assaisoner	vb	to ripen, season	W7
	semé	adj	seme	W7
	semer	vb	to sow	W7
	soir	n.masc	evening	W7
	soirée	n.fem	evening	W7
French:	colza	n.masc	colza	W7
	menhir	n.masc	menhir	W7
	semer	vb	to sow	TLL
	soirée	n.fem	evening party/period	W7
Italian:	seminare	vb	to sow	TLL
Baltic
Old Prussian:	semen	n	seed, semen	LRC
Lithuanian:	seju, seti	vb	to sow	RPN
	sekla	n.fem	seed, semen	LRC
	selena	n	seed husk	RPN
	semen(y)s	n	flax seed	RPN
	síela	n.fem	soul	LRC
	síena	n.fem	wall	LRC
	skaitýti, skaito, skaite	vb	to read	LRC
	skaitýtojas	n.masc	reader	LRC
Slavic
Polish:	siac	vb	to sow	RPN
Old Church Slavonic:	seme	n	seed, semen	RPN
	sejo, seti	vb	to sow	RPN
Russian:	semja	n	seed, semen	LRC
Anatolian
Hittite:	is-hu-u-wa-a-i	vb.3.sg	to sow, shed, scatter	RPN
Indic
Sanskrit:	sra	n	seed-plow	LRC

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
3	=	3rd person
VII	=	class 7
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
arch	=	archaic
conj	=	conjunction
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
prep	=	preposition
ptc	=	participle
sfx	=	suffix
sg	=	singular (number)
str	=	strong (inflection)
trans	=	transitive
vb	=	verb
wk	=	weak (inflection)

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)
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)
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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