The University of Texas at Austin; College of Liberal Arts

Hans C. Boas, Director :: PCL 5.556, 1 University Station S5490 :: Austin, TX 78712 :: 512-471-4566

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: (s)mer- 'to mourn, remember, think of, care for'

Semantic Fields: to Remember; to Think, Reflect; Care (n)

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	gemimor	vb.past.ptc	known	GED
	mam(o)rian	vb.wk	to think out, plan	GED
	mimorian	vb	to remember	W7
	murnan	vb.wk	to mourn, sorrow for	GED/ASD
Middle English:	demeoren	vb	to linger	W7
	demerit	n	demerit	W7
	memorable	adj	memorable	W7
	memorandum	n	memorandum	W7
	memorie	n	memory	W7
	merit	n	merit	W7
	mournen	vb	to mourn	W7
	remembren	vb	to remember	W7
English:	allomerism	n	chemical without crystalline variability	AHD/W7
	commemorate	vb.trans	to call to remembrance	AHD/W7
	demerit	n	offense	AHD/W7
	demur	vb.intrans	to interpose an objection	AHD/W7
	dimer	n	two identical molecules combined	AHD
	emeritus	adj	holding (after retirement) same (honorary) title	AHD/W7
	isomer	n	one of several chemicals with same elements but different structure	AHD/W2I
	memorable	adj	notable, worth remembering	AHD/W7
	memorandum	n	informal record	AHD/W7
	memory	n	power/process of recalling/reproducing what was learned	AHD/W7
	-mere	n.sfx	part, segment, partition	AHD/W7
	meretricious	adj	re: prostitute	AHD/W7
	meristem	n	formative plant cells capable of indefinite division	AHD/W7
	merit	n	reward/punishment due	AHD/W7
	merit	vb	to earn, deserve, be worthy of	W7
	-merous	adj.sfx	having as part(s)	AHD/W7
	Mimir	prop.n	primal deity renowned for knowledge/wisdom (Norse mythology)	LRC
	monomer	n	simple unpolymerized chemical compound	AHD/W7
	mora	n	minimal unit of measure: duration of average short syllable	AHD/W7
	moratorium	n	authorized delay in performance of obligation	AHD/W7
	moratory	adj	re: delay in performance of obligation	AHD/W7
	mourn	vb	to feel/express grief/sorrow	AHD/W7
	polymer	n	chemical compound of repeating structural units	W7
	remember	vb	to bring to mind, think of again	AHD/W7
	remora	n	fish with suction disk on head	AHD/W7
	trimer	n	three identical molecules combined	AHD
W-Germanic
Old Saxon:	mornian	vb	to mourn, be sorrowful	GED
	mornon/mornon	vb	to mourn, be sorrowful	GED/ASD
Old High German:	mornen	vb.wk	to mourn, be sorrowful	GED
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	Mimir	prop.n	Mimir: decapitated Norse god whose head recites secret knowledge to Odin	W7
Old Icelandic:	Mimir	prop.n	Mimir	GED
Icelandic:	morna	vb	to mourn	ASD
E-Germanic
Gothic:	*maurnan	vb.wk.III	to worry, concern oneself	GED
Italic
Latin:	commemoratus	vb.ptc	reminded of	W7
	commemoro, commemorare	vb	to commemorate	W7
	demoror, demorari	vb.dep	to stop, hinder, delay	CLD
	emerior, emereri	vb	to serve out one's term	W7
	emeritus	vb.ptc	who has served	W7
	immemor, immemoris	adj	heedless	LRC
	memini	vb.defc	remember	LRC
	memor, memoris	adj	mindful (of), remembering	GED
	memorabilis	adj	memorable	W7
	memorandus	ger	to be remembered	W7
	memoria, memoriae	n.fem	memory, remembrance, recollection	GED
	memoro, memorare, memoravi, memoratus	vb	to tell, relate, mention	LRC
	mereo, merere	vb	to earn, serve, deserve	W7
	mereor, mereri	vb.dep	to serve with merit	W7
	meretricius	adj	of a prostitute	W7
	meretrix, meretricis	n.fem	prostitute	W7
	meritum	n.neut	merit	W7
	meritus	vb.ptc	merited	W7
	mora	n.fem	delay	W7
	moratus	vb.ptc	lingering	W7
	moror, morari	vb.dep	to delay, linger	W7
	remora	n.fem	delay	W7
	remoror, remorari	vb.dep	to delay	W7
Late Latin:	memoror, memorari	vb.dep	to be mindful of	W7
	moratorium	n.neut	delay	W7
	moratorius	adj	dilatory	W7
	rememor, rememorari	vb.dep	to remember	W7
New Latin:	-merus	sfx	part, -merous	W7
	moratorium	n.neut	legally authorized delay	W7
	morula	n.fem	brief delay	W7
Old French:	demorer	vb	to linger	W7
	merite	n.masc	merit	W7
Middle French:	demerite	n.masc	demerit	W7
	mémoire	n.fem	memory	W7
	mérite	n.masc	merit	W7
	remembrer	vb	to remember	W7
French:	-mère	sfx	-mere	W7
	moratoire	n.masc	moratory	W7
Baltic
Lithuanian:	mereti	vb	to concern oneself	GED
Albanian
Albanian:	meritoj	vb	to merit	LRC
Hellenic
Greek:	diamerízô	vb	to cleave	LRC
	marturéô	vb	to bear witness	LRC
	marturía	n.fem	testimony	LRC
	márturos	n.gen	of the witness	GED
	mártus	n	witness	GED
	-meres	sfx	of parts, partially	W7
	merizein	vb	to divide	W7
	mérimna	n.fem	care, anxious thought	LRC
	meristos	adj	divided	W7
	mérmeros	adj	causing much care, grief	GED
	mermera	n.fem	care	W7
	méros	n.neut	part	LRC
Armenian
Armenian:	mormok'	n	care, discontent	GED
Iranian
Avestan:	mi-mara-	adj	mindful	GED
	(-s)mar-	vb	to notice, be mindful of	GED
Indic
Sanskrit:	smará-	n	remembrance	GED
	smárati	vb	to remember, long for	GED
	smrti-	n	recollection	GED

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
III	=	class 3
adj	=	adjective
defc	=	defective
dep	=	deponent
fem	=	feminine (gender)
gen	=	genitive (case)
ger	=	gerund(ive)
intrans	=	intransitive
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)
CLD	=	Cassell's Latin Dictionary (1959, rev. 1968)
GED	=	Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
W2I	=	Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd ed. (1959)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

Nearby etyma: previous | next