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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.

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Pokorny Etymon: 2. ster- 'star'

Semantic Field: Star

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Breton:	sterenn	n	star	GED
Cornish:	sterenn	n	star	GED
Welsh:	seren	n	star	GED
English
Old English:	æfen-steorra	n.masc	evening-star	ASD
	steorra	n.masc	star	GED
Middle English:	asterisk	n	asterisk	AHD
	astronomie	n	astronomy	AHD
	constellacioun	n	constellation	W7
	even(e)-sterre	n	evening-star	OED
	sterre	n	star	W7
English:	aster	n	leafy-stemmed composite herb	AHD/W7
	asteriated	adj	star-shaped	AHD/W7
	asterisk	n	'*' [used in writing as reference/omission mark]	AHD/W7
	asterism	n	constellation, small star group	AHD/W7
	asteroid	n	sub-planetary solar satellite	AHD/W7
	astral	adj	re: stars	AHD/W7
	astraphobia	n	fear of thunder/lightning	AHD
	astr(o)-	pfx	star, heavens	AHD/W7
	astrobleme	n	meteor/comet impact pit/crater	AHD
	astrogate	vb	to navigate in space	W7
	astronaut	n	one who works/travels in space	AHD
	astronomer	n	one who studies stars/planets/galaxies	AHD
	astronomy	n	science of celestial bodies	AHD/W7
	constellation	n	configuration of stars	AHD/W7
	disaster	n	unfavorable stellar/planetary aspect	AHD/W7
	evening-star	n	Venus seen at/after sunset	W7
	Evenstar	prop.n	Arwen's epithet in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	star	n	luminous natural body visible in sky	AHD/W7
	stellar	adj	astral, re: star(s)	AHD/W7
	stellate	adj	star-shaped, radiating from center	AHD
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	stera	n	star	GED
Dutch:	ster	n	star	TLL
Old Saxon:	sterro	n.masc	star	GED
Middle Low German:	sterne	n.masc	star	GED
Old High German:	stern	n.masc	star	GED
	sterno	n.masc	star	GED
	sterro	n.masc	star	GED
German:	Stern	n.masc	star	LRC
N-Germanic
Old Icelandic:	stjarna	n.fem	star	GED
Icelandic:	stjarna	n.fem	star	ASD
Danish:	stjerne	n	star	TLL
Swedish:	stjärna	n	star	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	*stairno	n.fem	star	GED
Crimean Gothic:	*stern/stein	n	star	GED/CGo
Italic
Latin:	aster	n.masc	star	W7
	astronomia, astronomiae	n.fem	astronomy	LRC
	astrum	n.neut	star	W7
	stella	n.fem	star	GED
Late Latin:	asteriscus	n.masc	little star	W7
	astralis	adj	re: stars	W7
	constellatio	n.fem	ensemble of stars	W7
	constellatus	vb.ptc	studded with stars	W7
	stellaris	adj	re: stars	W7
Old French:	astronomie	n	astronomy	AHD
Middle French:	constellation	n.fem	ensemble of stars	W7
	desastre	n.masc	disaster	W7
	disaster	n.masc	disaster	W7
Old Italian:	disastro	n.masc	disaster	W7
Hellenic
Homeric Greek:	asteróeis	adj	starred, starry, star-like	LRC
	astêr	n.masc	star	GED
	ástron	n.neut	star, constellation	LRC
Greek:	asterizein	vb	to arrange in constellations	W7
	astérios	adj	starry	CDC
	asterískos	n.masc.dim	asterisk, little star	CDC
	asterismós	n.masc	asterism, marking with stars	W7/CDC
	asteroeidês	adj	star-like	CDC
	astrape	n	lightning	AHD
	astronomia	n	astronomy	AHD
Anatolian
Hittite:	haster-	n	star	GED
Armenian
Armenian:	astl	n	star	GED
Iranian
Avestan:	starum	n.acc.sg	star	GED
	staro	n.nom.pl	stars	GED
Indic
Sanskrit:	taras	n.nom.pl	stars	GED
	stár-	n	star	GED
	strbhis	n.inst.pl	stars	GED
Tocharian
Tocharian B:	scirye	n.pl	stars	GED
Tocharian A:	sre-ñ	n.pl	stars	GED

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
acc	=	accusative (case)
adj	=	adjective
dim	=	diminutive
fem	=	feminine (gender)
inst	=	instrumental (case)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
nom	=	nominative (case)
pfx	=	prefix
pl	=	plural (number)
prop	=	proper
ptc	=	participle
sg	=	singular (number)
vb	=	verb

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)
CGo	=	MacDonald Stearns, Jr: Crimean Gothic (1978)
GED	=	Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
OED	=	James A.H. Murray et al: The Oxford English Dictionary (1933)
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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