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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.

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: upo, up, eup, (e)up-s- 'under, (from) below, etc.'

Semantic Field: Low

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Welsh:	gwas	n	boy, servant	W7
English
Old English:	(a)bufan/bufon	adv	above	W7
	bufan/bufon	prep	above	W7/ASD
	efes	n.fem	eaves	W7
	ufan	adv	above	W7
	ufe-	pfx	up	LRC
	ufe-weard	adj	upward	LRC
	up	adv	up, upwards	LRC
	uppe	adv	up, above	LRC
	yfel	adj/n.neut	evil	IEW
Middle English:	above	adv/prep	above	W7
	eves	n	eaves	W7
	evil	adj/n	evil	W7
	oft	adv	often	W7
	often	adv	often	W7
	open	adj	open	W7
	sub-	pfx	sub-	W7
	supyn	adj	supine	W7
	up	adv	upward	W7
	uppe	adv	on high	W7
	varlet	n	varlet, attendant	W7
	vassal	n	vassal	W7
	ypo-	pfx	hypo-	W7
English:	above	adv/prep	over(head), in(to) higher place	W7
	eaves	n.pl	lower borders of roof overhanging wall	AHD/W7
	eavesdrop	vb	to listen in secret	AHD
	evil	adj	ill, bad, wicked, pernicious	W7
	evil	n	wrong, mischief, wickedness	LRC
	hyp(o)-	pfx	low, down, under, beneath	AHD/W7
	hypogeal	adj	underground, beneath earth's surface	AHD
	hypolimnion	n	water layer below thermocline	AHD
	hypopnea	n	abnormally slow/shallow breathing	AHD
	hyposthenia	n	weakness, abnormal lack of strength	AHD
	hypothermia	n	abnormally low body temperature	AHD
	hyps(o)-	pfx	height	AHD
	oft	adv	often	AHD/W7
	often	adv	frequently, many times	AHD/W7
	opal	n	gemstone, silicon dioxide mineral	AHD/W7
	open	adj	permitting ingress/egress/passage	AHD/W7
	resupinate	adj	inverted, bent back to supine position	AHD/W7
	soutane	n	cassock with buttons down front	AHD/W7
	sub-	pfx	under, beneath, below, up to	AHD/W7
	subduction	n	forcing one below another	AHD
	subdue	vb	to conquer, vanquish, subjugate	AHD
	subfusc	adj	dull, dark, somber	AHD
	subter-	pfx	under	TLL
	supine	adj	lying on back, with face upward	AHD/W7
	up	adv/prep	in(to) higher level/position	AHD/W7
	Upbourn	prop.n	Rohan village in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	upholster	vb	to furnish with upholstery	W7
	upholsterer	n	one who upholsters	AHD
	upholstery	n	materials used to make soft covering	W7
	upon	prep	up on	LRC
	valet	n	man's male personal servant	AHD/W7
	varlet	n	menial, attendant	AHD/W7
	vassal	n	feudal tenant, one under protection of feudal lord	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	evel	adj/n.masc	evil	ASD
	ose	n.pl	eaves, edges of roof	ASD
	up/op	adv	up	ASD
Dutch:	op	prep	on, upon	TLL
	opdat	prep	in order that	TLL
Old Saxon:	ubil	adj/n.masc	evil	ASD
	up	adv	up	ASD
	uppa/uppe	adv	up, above, on high	ASD
Old Low German:	up	adv	up	ASD
Old High German:	obasa/opasa	n	portico	W7/ASD
	offan	adj	open	W7
	ofto	adv	often	W7
	ubil	adj/adv/n.masc	evil	IEW/ASD
	uf	adv/prep	up, on	W7
Middle High German:	obese	n.fem	vestibule	ASD
German:	auf	prep	up, upon	LRC
	offen	adj	open	LRC
	oft	adv	often	LRC
	übel	adj/adv	evil	LRC
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	of	prep	over, across, through; around, about, concerning	LRC
Old Icelandic:	of	prep	on, in, over	LRC
Icelandic:	ofan	adv	from above	ASD
	upp(i)	adv	up, above, on high	ASD
	ups	n.fem	eaves	ASD
Danish:	paa	prep	on, upon	TLL
Swedish:	på	prep	on, upon	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	ubil	n.masc	evil	ASD
	ubils	adj	evil	LRC
	ubizwa	n.fem	hall, porch	ASD
Italic
Latin:	opalus	n.masc	opal	W7
	resupinatus	vb.ptc	resupinate	W7
	resupino, resupinare	vb	to bend back to supine position	W7
	sub	prep	under, up to	LRC
	subfuscus	adj	subfusc, brownish	AHD
	subitus, subita, subitum	adj	sudden	LRC
	subter	prep/adv	underneath; secretly	W7
	subtus	prep	underneath	W7
	supinus	adj	supine, upside-down	W7
	sus-	pfx	sub-	W7
	sustineo, sustinere, sustinui, sustentum	vb	to hold back	LRC
Late Latin:	hyp(o)-	pfx	hypo-	W7
	supinum	n.neut	supine	W7
Medieval Latin:	subtanus	n.masc	soutane	W7
	vassallus	n.masc	vassal, servant	W7
	vassellittus	n.masc.dim	little servant	W7
	vassus	n.masc	vassal, servant	W7
Old French:	ypo-	pfx	hypo-	W7
Middle French:	valet	n.masc	page, valet, young nobleman	W7
	varlet/vaslet	n.masc	varlet	W7
	vassal	n.masc	vassal, servant	W7
French:	audessous	adv	below	TLL
	sous	prep	below	TLL
	soutane	n.fem	soutane	W7
Italian:	sottana	n.fem	soutane	W7
	sottano	vb.ptc	being underneath	W7
	sotto	prep	below	TLL
Slavic
Old Church Slavonic:	vysoku'	adj	high, tall	LRC
Hellenic
Greek:	upárchô	vb.ptc	belonging to	LRC
	upó	prep	by, under	LRC
Indic
Sanskrit:	upala	n	stone, jewel	W7

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
dim	=	diminutive
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
pfx	=	prefix
pl	=	plural (number)
prep	=	preposition
prop	=	proper
ptc	=	participle
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)
IEW	=	Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
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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