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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. sek- 'to cut, section, dissect'

Semantic Field: to Cut

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	saga/sagu	n.masc/fem	saw	ASD
	seax	n.neut	knife, cutting tool	ASD
	Seaxe, Seaxan	prop.n	Saxon(s)	ASD
	secg	n.masc/neut	sedge	ASD
	segl/s(w)egel	n	sail; veil, curtain	IEW/ASD
	segl(i)an, seglode, seglod	vb.wk.II	to sail	ASD
	sicol	n.masc	sickle	ASD
	siþe	n.masc	scythe	W7
Middle English:	sail	n	sail	W7
	sawe	n	saw	W7
	sax	n	zax, knife	AHD
	Saxon	n	Saxon	W7
	segge	n	sedge	W7
	sikel	n	sickle	W7
	sithe	n	scythe	W7
English:	dissect	vb	to separate into pieces	AHD/W7
	insect	n	small segmented invertebrate animal	AHD/W7
	intersect	vb	to cross, pierce/divide	AHD/W7
	Irensaga	prop.n	mountain in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	resect	vb.trans	to perform resection on	AHD/W7
	sail	n	fabric deflecting wind to propel boat/ship	W7
	sail	vb	to travel on water using sail	W7
	saw	n	toothed blade for cutting hard materials	AHD/W7
	saw	vb	to cut with saw	W7
	sawn	vb.past.ptc	sawed	LRC
	saxatile	adj	saxicolous	AHD/W7
	saxicolous	adj	inhabiting/growing among rocks	AHD/W7
	Saxon	prop.n	member of tribe from Saxony	LRC
	scythe	n	long curved blade (on long handle) used for mowing	AHD/W7
	secant	n	straight line intersecting curve at multiple points	AHD/W7
	-sect	adj.sfx	cut, divided	AHD/W7
	-sect	vb.sfx	to cut, divide	AHD/W7
	sectile	adj	able to be severed by knife with smooth cut	AHD/W7
	section	n	action/instance of cutting/separating	AHD/W7
	section	vb	to cut/separate into sections	W7
	sector	n	geometrical figure: two radii + included arc of circle	AHD/W7
	sedge	n	tufted marsh plant	AHD/W7
	seecatch	n	adult male Alaskan fur seal	AHD
	segment	n	piece, portion, fragment	AHD/W7
	Sickle	prop.n	Ursa Major in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	sickle	n	curved metal blade (on short handle)	AHD/W7
	transect	vb	to cut transversely	AHD/W7
	zax	n	roof slate cutting tool	AHD
W-Germanic
Dutch:	zeil	n	sail	TLL
Old High German:	Sahsun	prop.n	Saxon(s)	ASD
	sega/saga	n.fem	saw	W7/ASD
	segal	n	sail	IEW
	segelen	vb	to sail	ASD
	sichila/sihhila	n.fem	sickle	W7/ASD
Middle High German:	segge	n	sedge	W7
German:	Säge	n.fem	saw	LRC
	sagen	vb	to saw	LRC
	Segel	n.neut	sail	LRC
	segeln	vb	to sail	LRC
	Segge	n.fem	sedge	LRC
	Sichel	n.fem	sickle	ASD
N-Germanic
Old Icelandic:	segl	n	sail	IEW
Icelandic:	Saxar	prop.n	Saxon(s)	ASD
	segl	n.neut	sail	ASD
	sigd	n	sickle	ASD
	sigðr	n.masc	scythe	ASD
	sigla	vb	to sail	ASD
	sög	n.fem	saw	ASD
Danish:	sejl	n	sail	TLL
Swedish:	segel	n	sail	TLL
Italic
Latin:	disseco, dissecare	vb	to cut apart	W7
	dissectus	vb.ptc	cut apart	W7
	inseco, insecare	vb	to cut into	W7
	insectus	vb.ptc	cut into	W7
	interseco, intersecare	vb	to cut at intervals	W7
	intersectus	vb.ptc	cut at intervals	W7
	reseco, resecare	vb	to cut off	W7
	resectus	vb.ptc	cut off	W7
	saxatillis	adj	saxatile	W7
	saxum	n.neut	rock	W7
	secans	adj/vb.ptc	cutting	W7
	seco, secare, secui, sectum	vb	to cut, wound, injure	W7
	sectilis	adj	that can be separated	W7
	sectio, sectionis	n.fem	section, act/result of cutting	W7
	sector	n.masc	cutter	W7
	secula	n.fem	sickle	W7
	segmentum	n.neut	segment	W7
	signum, signi	n.neut	sign	LRC
New Latin:	secans, secantis	adj/vb.ptc	secant	W7
Slavic
Russian:	sekach	n	seecatch	AHD
	sech'	vb	to cut	AHD

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
II	=	class 2
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
past	=	past (tense)
prop	=	proper
ptc	=	participle
sfx	=	suffix
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)
IEW	=	Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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