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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: 1. (s)p(h)ei- : (s)p(h)i- 'sharp/pointed stick: spile, spit, etc.'

Semantic Fields: Sharp; Branch

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	finn	n	fin	KEW
	spaca	n.masc	spoke	W7
	spir	n	spire	W7
	spitu	n.fem	spit	W7
Middle English:	porkepin	n	porcupine	W7
	sperling	n	sparling	W7
	spik	n	head of grain	W7
	spike	n	spike	W7
	spille	n	spill	W7
	spine	n	spine	W7
	spire	n	spire	W7
	spit	n	spit	W7
	spoke	n	spoke	W7
English:	fin	n	external (e.g. fish) membrane for moving in water	LRC
	porcupine	n	large rodent with stiff sharp erectile hair/bristles	AHD/W7
	sparling	n	European smelt	AHD/W7
	Spica	prop.n	brightest star in constellation Virgo	LRC
	spica	n	spiral reverse plain/plaster bandage immobilizing limb	AHD/W7
	spiculum	n	organ having form of spicule	AHD/W7
	spike	n	very large nail	AHD/W7
	spike	n	ear of grain	AHD/W7
	spile	n	pile, large stake driven into ground	AHD/W7
	spill	n	wooden splinter	AHD/W7
	spine	n	spinal column	AHD/W7
	spinel	n	hard crystalline mineral: magnesium/aluminum oxide	AHD/W7
	spinney	n	copse, small wood with undergrowth	AHD/W7
	spire	n	slender tapering blade/stalk (e.g. of grass)	AHD/W7
	spit	n	slender pointed rod holding meat over fire	AHD/W7
	spitz	n	stocky heavy-coated northern dog	AHD/W7
	spoke	n	small bar radiating from hub of wheel supporting rim	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Middle Dutch:	spier	n	spire, shoot, blade of grass	W7
	spierlinc	n	sparling	W7
	spike	n	spike	W7
Dutch:	spier	n	muscle	TLL
	spijl	n	stake	W7
	vin	n	fin	TLL
Old Low German:	speca	n	spoke, radius	ASD
Old High German:	speicha	n	spoke, radius	ASD
	spiz	n	spit	ASD
German:	Speiche	n.fem	spoke, radius	ASD
	spitz	adj	pointed	W7
N-Germanic
Old Icelandic:	spík	n.fem	spike, sprig	ICE
Icelandic:	spíra	n	spar	ASD
Danish:	finne	n	fin	TLL
	spig	n	spike, sprig	ICE
	spir	n	spar	ASD
	spire	n	spire, sprout	ASD
Swedish:	fena	n	fin	TLL
	spira	n	spire, pistil; spar, sceptre	ASD
Italic
Latin:	Spica	prop.n.fem	Spica	W7
	spica	n.fem	cob, point, acorn	W7
	spiculum	n.neut	arrowhead	W7
	spina, spinae	n.fem	spine, thorn	LRC
Spanish:	espina	n	spine	TLL
Middle French:	esperling	n.masc	sparling	W7
	espinaye	n.fem	thorny thicket	W7
	espine	n.fem	thorn	W7
French:	épine	n	spine	TLL
Old Italian:	porcospino	n.masc	porcupine	W7
Italian:	spina	n.fem	thorn	W7
Baltic
Latvian:	spina	n	twig	W7

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
prop	=	proper

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)
KEW	=	Gerhard Köbler: Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed. (2003)
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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