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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 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: 3. bher- 'to bore, cut, scrape, use sharp tool'

Semantic Fields: to Cut; Sharp; Tool

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Irish:	barra	n	bar, spike	CDC
Gaelic:	barra	n	bar, spike	CDC
Breton:	barren	n	bar, branch	CDC
Cornish:	bara	n	bar	CDC
Welsh:	bar	n	bar, rail	CDC
English
Old English:	bearg/bearh	n.masc	barrow	W7/ASD
	bor	n	auger, gimlet	RPN
	borian	vb	to bore, pierce	RPN
Middle English:	barow(e)/bar(r)ow/baru	n	barrow	W7/CDC
	barr(e)	n	bar	W7/CDC
	bor(i)en	vb	to bore	W7/CDC
English:	bar	n	barrier, straight solid wood/metal implement	IEW
	barrow	n	male hog castrated prior to sexual maturity	AHD/W7
	bore	vb	to pierce with rotary tool	AHD/W7
	borer	n	rotary tool for boring	LRC
	burin	n	stone-cutting tool with sharp beveled point	AHD
	Dukhobor	prop.n	(member of) Russian Christian movement	AHD
	foramen	n	fenestra: small opening/orifice/perforation	AHD/W7
	perforate	vb	to make hole(s) in	AHD/W7
	pharynx	n	alimentary canal between mouth and esophagus	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Frisian:	baerg	n.masc	barrow	ASD
Dutch:	barg	n.masc	barrow	ASD
	berg	n	barrow	CDC
	boor	n	borer, auger, gimlet	CDC
	boren	vb	to bore	CDC
Middle Low German:	barc	n	barrow	CDC
	bor	n	borer, auger, gimlet	CDC
Old High German:	bar(u)g/barc	n.masc	barrow	W7/ASD
	boro	n	auger	RPN
	borōn	vb	to bore	RPN
Middle High German:	bar(re)	n	bar	CDC
	born	vb	to bore	CDC
German:	Barre	n	bar, ingot	CDC
	bohren	vb	to bore	LRC
	Bohrer	n.masc	borer, auger, gimlet	LRC
	Borg-schwein	n.neut	barrow	ASD
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	barki	n	throat	W7
	berja, barði/bariðr	vb	to beat, smite; (refl.) fight	LRC
Old Icelandic:	bora	vb	to bore (holes in)	RPN
	borr	n	borer, auger, gimlet	RPN
Icelandic:	bora	vb	to bore	CDC
	borr	n	borer, auger, gimlet	CDC
	börgr	n	barrow	CDC
Danish:	barre	n	bar, ingot	CDC
	bor	n	borer, auger, gimlet	CDC
	bore	vb	to bore	CDC
Swedish:	borr	n	borer, auger, gimlet	CDC
	borra	vb	to bore	CDC
Italic
Latin:	feriō, ferīre	vb	to strike, cut, kill	W7
	forāmen, forāminis	n.neut	hole, opening	W7
	forō, forāre	vb	to bore, pierce	RPN
	informis, informis, informe	adj	hideous, unshapely	LRC
	perforo, perforare, perforatus	vb	to pierce, perforate	W7
Late Latin:	barra	n	bar	CDC
New Latin:	pharynx, pharyngis	n.masc	pharynx	W7
Portuguese:	barra	n	bar	CDC
Spanish:	barra	n	bar	CDC
Old French:	barre	n	bar	W7
French:	barre	n	bar	CDC
Old Occitan:	barra	n	bar	CDC
Italian:	barra	n	bar	CDC
Slavic
Old Church Slavonic:	borjǫ, brati	vb	to fight	RPN
Russian:	barŭ	n	bar	CDC
	bort'	n	hollowed-out tree	RPN
Albanian
Albanian:	brimë	n	hole	RPN
Hellenic
Homeric Greek:	φάρυγξ	n.fem	throat, gullet, pharynx	LS
Greek:	φαράω	vb	to plow	RPN
	φάρμακον	n.neut	paint, color	LRC
	φαρόω	vb	to plow	RPN
	pharynx	n.masc/fem	throat, pharynx	W7
Armenian
Classical Armenian:	beran	n	mouth	LRC
Armenian:	brem	vb	to dig, drill (out)	RPN
Indic
Sanskrit:	bhára-ḥ	n	war, battle, contest	RPN

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
prop	=	proper
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)
IEW	=	Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
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)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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