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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: 3. sp(h)e(i)-, spi-, and sphe- : sphu- 'to fatten, prosper, succeed, etc.'

Semantic Fields: to Grow; Good Fortune

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	sped	n.fem	means, riches, success, prosperity	LRC
	spic/spec(a)/spec	n	speck	KEW/ASD
	spowan	vb	to succeed	GED
Middle English:	despeiren	vb	to despair	W7
	esperaunce	n	esperance	W7
	prosperen	vb	to prosper	W7
	space	n	space	W7
	spede	n	speed	W7
English:	despair	vb	to lose hope/confidence	AHD/W7
	esperance	n	hope, expectation	AHD/W7
	prosper	vb	to succeed	AHD/W7
	prosperous	adj	successful, auspicious, favorable	W7
	space	n	area, volume, open/empty tract	TLL
	spatial	adj	re: space, physical dimensions	TLL
	speck	n	fat, lard, bacon, fatty meat	OED
	speed	n	success, prosperity in undertaking	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Middle Dutch:	spec	n	speck	OED
Dutch:	spek	n	speck	OED
Old Saxon:	spek	n	speck	KSW
Middle Low German:	speck	n	speck	OED
Old High German:	fera	n.str.fem	side, part	GED
	fiara	n.str.fem	side, part	GED
	spek/spec(h)	n	speck	KDW/OED
	spuo(a)n	vb.wk	to succeed	GED/ASD
	spuot	n	speed, prosperity	W7
Middle High German:	spec	n	speck	OED
German:	Speck	n	speck	TLL
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	spik	n	speck	KNW
Danish:	spæk	n	speck	SAO
Middle Swedish:	späk	n	speck	OED
Swedish:	späck	n	speck	SAO
E-Germanic
Gothic:	fera	n.fem	side/limb/member of body; region	GED
Italic
Latin:	despero, desperare	vb	to be desperate	W7
	prospero, prosperare	vb	to cause to succeed	W7
	prosperus	adj	favorable	W7
	spatium, spatii	n.neut	space, room	LRC
	spero, sperare	vb	to hope	W7
	spes, spei	n.fem	hope, expectation	GED
Spanish:	espacio	n	space	TLL
	esperar	vb	to hope	TLL
Old French:	espace	n	space	W7
Middle French:	desperer	vb	to despair, be desperate	W7
	esperance	n.fem	esperance	W7
	prospérer	vb	to grow, prosper	W7
	prospereux	adj	prosperous	W7
French:	espace	n	space	TLL
Baltic
Lithuanian:	sperus	adj	rapid, energetic	GED
	speti	vb	to be capable, fast enough	GED
Latvian:	spet	vb	to be able	GED
	spietosana	n.fem	swarming	LRC
Slavic
Old Church Slavonic:	speti	vb	to flourish	GED
Indic
Sanskrit:	spayate	vb	to increase, become fat	GED
	spirá-	adj	fat	GED
	sphita-	adj	abundant	GED

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
str	=	strong (inflection)
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)
KDW	=	Gerhard Köbler: Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 4th ed. (1993)
KEW	=	Gerhard Köbler: Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed. (2003)
KNW	=	Gerhard Köbler: Altnordisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed. (2003)
KSW	=	Gerhard Köbler: Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed. (2000)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
OED	=	James A.H. Murray et al: The Oxford English Dictionary (1933)
SAO	=	Swedish Academy: Svenska Akademiens Ordbok (2011)
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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