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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: 1. bhlē̆i- : bhləi- : bhlī- 'to shine, glitter'

Semantic Field: to Shine, Glisten

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	blāc	adj	bright, white	RPN
	blēo	n.str	form, hue, color, visage	GED/RPN
	blīcan	vb	to shine, glitter	RPN
	blis(s)/blys(s)	n.str.fem	bliss	GED/ASD
	blīþe	adj	blithe	GED
	blīþian	vb.wk	to rejoice	GED
	blīþs/blīds	n.str.fem	bliss	GED/ASD
Middle English:	ble(o)	n	hue, radiance, complexion	MEV
	blis(se)/blys(se)	n	bliss	W7/MEV
	blith(e)/bliþe/blyþe/blythe	adj	blithe	W7/MEV/CDC
English:	bliss	n	joy, gladness, happiness	GED
	blithe	adj	glad, happy, pleasant, lighthearted	GED
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	*blīde/blīd-	adj	blithe	CDC/GED
	bli(e)	n.str	color	GED
	blika	vb	to shine, glitter	ASD
Frisian:	blike	vb	to shine, appear	ASD
North Frisian:	blid	adj	kind, merciful	CDC
Dutch:	blij(de)	adj	kind, merciful	CDC
Old Saxon:	blī	n	lead (metal)	KSW
	blī	n.str	color	GED
	blīdōn/blīthōn	vb.wk	to rejoice	GED
	blīdsea/blīzza/blītzea	n.fem	bliss	GED/CDC
	blīdsean	vb.wk	to delight	GED
	blikan	vb	to shine, glitter	ASD
	blīthi	adj	blithe	GED
Old High German:	arblichan	vb	to blanch, shine by exposure	ASD
	blīden	vb.wk	to rejoice	GED
	blīdi	adj	blithe	GED
	blīo	n	lead (metal)	KDW
	blīzzen	vb.wk	to delight	GED
Middle High German:	blichen	vb	to shine, glitter	ASD
	blīde	adj	kind, merciful	CDC
German:	Blei	n.neut	lead (metal)	TLL
	bleich	adj	pale, faint; sheer	LRC
	Bleistift	n.masc	lead pencil	LRC
	erbleichen	vb	to blanch, shine by exposure	ASD
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	blik(j)a	vb	to shine, glitter	ASD
	blý	n	lead (metal)	KNW
Old Icelandic:	blīðr	adj	mild, pleasant (of weather)	GED
Icelandic:	blīdhr	adj	kind, merciful	CDC
Danish:	blid	adj	kind, merciful	CDC
	bly	n	lead (metal)	TLL
Swedish:	blid	adj	kind, merciful	CDC
	bly	n	lead (metal)	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	bleiþs	adj	kind, merciful	GED
Baltic
Lithuanian:	blizgú	vb	to shine	ASD
Slavic
Old Church Slavonic:	blědъ	adj	light green, yellow	RPN

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
str	=	strong (inflection)
vb	=	verb
wk	=	weak (inflection)

Key to information Source codes (always with 'LRC' as editor):

Code		Citation
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)
KDW	=	Gerhard Köbler: Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 4th ed. (1993)
KNW	=	Gerhard Köbler: Altnordisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed. (2003)
KSW	=	Gerhard Köbler: Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed. (2000)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
MEV	=	J.R.R. Tolkien: A Middle English Vocabulary (1922)
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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