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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 with Unicode^® support, but fonts for only the Unicode 2.0 character set (including combining diacritics). Versions of this page rendered in alternate character sets are available via links (see Unicode 3 and ISO-8859-1) in the left margin.

Pokorny Etymon: bhelg̑h- 'to swell, bulge, billow'

Semantic Field: to Grow

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Old Irish:	bolg	n.masc	sack	GED/IEW
	bolgaim	vb	to swell	GED
Middle Irish:	bolg	n.masc	bag, belly, stomach	W7/IED
Irish:	bolg	n	bag, belly	RPN
Welsh:	bol	n	sack, belly	GED
	bola	n	sack, belly	GED
	boly	n	sack, belly	GED
Gaulish:	bolg-	n	bag, belly	LRC
	bulga	n	leather sack	GED
English
Old English:	bæl(i)g/bielg	n.str.masc	bulge, (leather) bag	W7/ASD
	belgan	vb.str.III	to swell up, be angry	GED
	belgas	n.pl	bellows	MEV
	bel(i)g/byl(i)g/bilig	n.str.masc	bulge, bag	GED/ASD
	bolster	n.masc	bolster	CDC/ASD
Middle English:	bellewys	n.pl	bellows	MEV
	below, bel(o)wes	n	bellow(s)	W7/CDC
	bely/beli	n	belly	W7/CDC
	bolster/bolstre	n	bolster	W7/CDC
	bowgette	n	budget	W7
	*bylge	n	billow	CDC
English:	bellows	n	tool/machine to expand/contract, drawing in/expelling air	AHD/W7
	belly	n	stomach, abdomen	AHD/W7
	billow	n	wave	AHD/W7
	billow	vb	to surge, swell, rise/roll in billows	OED
	blagging	n	conversation, informal talk	AHD
	Bolger	prop.n	hobbit surname in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	bolster	n	long pillow/cushion extending full width of bed	AHD/W7
	Budgeford	prop.n	hobbit town in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	budget	n	(leather) pack/pouch/wallet	AHD/W7
	bulge	n	lowest area in ship's inner hull	AHD/W7
	bulge	vb	to swell, jut out	W7
Scots English:	bowster	n	bolster	CDC
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	balga	n	skin, belly	CDC
	ovir-bulgen	vb.past.ptc	enraged	GED
Old Dutch:	bolghe/bulghe	n	bulge, bag	CDC
Dutch:	balg	n.masc	bulge, bag	ASD
	blaasbalg	n.masc	bellows	CDC
	bolster	n	bolster	CDC
Old Saxon:	balg	n.str.masc	bulge, bag	GED
	belgan	vb.str.III	to swell up, be angry	GED
Low German:	bulge	n	bulge, billow	CDC
Old High German:	balg	n.str.masc	bulge, bag, skin	GED
	belgan	vb.str.III	to swell up, be angry	GED
	blasbalg	n	bellows	CDC
	bolstar	n	bolster	CDC
	bulga	n.fem	bulge, bag, leather sack	GED
Middle High German:	balc	n.masc	bulge, bag	ASD
	bolster	n	bolster	CDC
	bulge	n	bag, billow	CDC
German:	Balg	n.masc	bag	ASD
	Blasebalg	n.masc	bellows	CDC
	Polster	n.neut	bolster	CDC
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	belgr	n.masc	bulge, bag	ASD
	bylgja	n	bag	W7
Old Icelandic:	belgja	vb.wk	to cause to swell	GED
	belgr	n.str.masc	bag, belly, flayed animal skin	GED
	bolginn	vb.past.ptc	swollen	GED
Icelandic:	belgr	n.masc	bag	CDC
	blāstrbelgr	n.masc	bellows	CDC
	bōlstr	n	bolster	CDC
	bylgia	n	billow	CDC
Danish:	blæsebælg	n.masc	bellows	CDC
	bolster	n	bed-ticking	CDC
	bælg	n.masc	bulge, bag	ASD
	bölge	n	billow	CDC
Swedish:	blåsbalg	n	bellows	CDC
	bolster	n	bed	CDC
	bölja	n	billow	CDC
	bälg	n	skin, case, belly	CDC
E-Germanic
Gothic:	*balgs	n.masc	skin, leather bag	GED
	ufbauljan	vb	to billow, puff up	CDC
Italic
Middle French:	bougette	n.fem	leather bag	W7
	bou(l)ge	n.masc	leather bag	W7
Baltic
Old Prussian:	balsinis	n	pillow	GED
	po-balso	n	bolster	GED
Latvian:	pa-bàlsts	n.masc	pillow for the head	GED/IEW
Slavic
Serbo-Croatian:	blàzina	n	pillow, bolster	GED
Slovenian:	blazína	n	feather-bed	GED
Iranian
Avestan:	barəziš	n.neut	pillow	GED/IEW
Indic
Sanskrit:	upa-barhaṇam	n	cover, bolster	GED
	upa-bárhanī	n.fem	cover, bolster	GED/IEW
	barhíṣ	n.neut	sacrificial straw	GED

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
III	=	class 3
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
past	=	past (tense)
pl	=	plural (number)
prop	=	proper
ptc	=	participle
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)
IED	=	Patrick S. Dinneen: An Irish-English Dictionary (1927)
IEW	=	Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
MEV	=	J.R.R. Tolkien: A Middle English Vocabulary (1922)
OED	=	James A.H. Murray et al: The Oxford English Dictionary (1933)
RPN	=	Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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