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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. (s)p(h)er-, sprei-, spreu- 'to sow, strew, spread, scatter, sprinkle'

Semantic Field: to Strew, Spread Out

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Welsh:	ffrau	n	stream	GED
	ffrwst	n.masc	haste	GED
English
Old English:	asprutan	vb	to sprout, shoot up	GED
	sprædan	vb.wk	to spread	W7/ASD
	spreawlian	vb.wk	to sprawl	W7/ASD
	spreot	n.masc	sprit, pole	W7
	spreotan/sprutan	vb.wk	to sprout, spring up	GED/ASD
	-sprutan	vb.sfx	to sprout	W7
Middle English:	bouspret	n	bowsprit	W7
	sperm	n	sperm	W7
	sprawlen	vb	to sprawl	W7
	spreden	vb	to spread	W7
	spret/sprit	n	sprit	W7
	sprouten	vb	to sprout	W7
English:	bowsprit	n	spar projecting forward from ship's stem	AHD/W7
	Diaspora	prop.n	dispersion of Jews among Gentiles	AHD/CDC
	pittosporum	n	evergreen shrub native to warm regions	AHD
	sperm	n	male reproductive cell(s)	AHD/W7
	sporadic	adj	isolated, separate, occurring occasionally in scattered instances	AHD/W7
	spore	n	primitive unicellular reproductive plant body	AHD/W7
	sprawl	vb	to lie thrashing/tossing about	AHD/W7
	spray	n	water flying as dispersed droplets	AHD/W7
	spray	n	small flowering shoot/branch	AHD/W7
	spray	vb	to apply/sprinkle/disperse liquid as spray	AHD/W7
	spread, spread	vb	to open/expand over larger area	AHD/W7
	sprit	n	spar crossing fore-and-aft sail on diagonal	AHD/W7
	spritz	vb	to squirt/spray quickly	AHD
	spritzer	n	wine drink with carbonated water	AHD
	sprout	n	(young) shoot, new growth	W7
	sprout	vb	to put out sprout(s)	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	spruta	vb	to sprout, shoot up	GED
Middle Dutch:	sprayen	vb	to spray	W7
Dutch:	spriet	n	sprit	ASD
	spruit	n	sprout	TLL
Old Saxon:	ut-sprutan	vb.str	to sprout, shoot up	GED
Old Low German:	te-spreidan	vb	to spread, disperse	ASD
Middle Low German:	bochspret	n	bowsprit	W7
	spret	n	sprit, pole	W7
Old High German:	spreitan	vb	to spread	RPN
	spreiten	vb	to spread	W7
	spriozan	vb	to sprout	W7
	spriu	n.str.neut	chaff	GED
Middle High German:	spriezen	vb.str	to sprout, spring up	GED
German:	spreizen	vb	to spread	LRC
	Spreu	n.fem	spray, chaff	LRC
	Spritzer	n.masc	squirter, splasher; spritzer	AHD
	sprühen	vb	to spray	LRC
N-Germanic
Danish:	sprød	n	sprit, pole	ASD
Swedish:	spröt	n	sprit, pole	ASD
E-Germanic
Gothic:	sprauto	adv	quickly, without delay	GED
Italic
Late Latin:	sperma, spermatis	n.neut	seed, sperm	W7
Medieval Latin:	sporadicus	adj	sporadic, from time to time	W7
New Latin:	spora	n.fem	seed, spore	W7
Middle French:	esperme	n.masc	sperm	W7
Baltic
Lithuanian:	spráusti	vb	to press, squeeze into gap	GED
	sprusti	vb	to flee, slip out	GED
Latvian:	spraûst	vb	to insert	GED
	sprûst	vb	to cramp	GED
Hellenic
Greek:	speírô	vb	to sow, scatter	GED
	speírôn	n.masc	sower	LRC
	spérma	n.neut	seed	LRC
	sporá	n.fem	seed, (act of) sowing	LS
	sporádên	adv	here and there	LS
	sporadikós	adj	sporadic, scattered	LS
Armenian
Armenian:	p^harat	adj	dispersed, scattered	RPN

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
prop	=	proper
sfx	=	suffix
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)
CDC	=	W.D. Whitney and B.E. Smith: The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (1889-1911)
GED	=	Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
LS	=	Liddell and Scott: Greek-English Lexicon, 7th-9th ed's (1882-1940), rev.
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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