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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. g̑enu-, g̑neu- 'knee, joint'

Semantic Field: Knee

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	cnēo(w)	n.str.neut	knee	GED
	cnēowlian	vb.wk	to kneel	W7
Middle English:	knee	n	knee	W7
	knelen	vb	to kneel	W7
English:	diagonal	adj	re: two nonadjacent vertices of polygonal figure	AHD/W7
	geniculate	adj	bent at angle, like bent knee	AHD/W7
	genuflect	vb.intrans	to bend knee, e.g. in worship	AHD/W7
	-gon	n.sfx	closed figure having angles/vertices	AHD/W7
	goniometer	n	instrument for measuring angles	AHD/W7
	gonion	n	point where lower jaw angles upward	AHD
	knee	n	joint in middle part of (esp. human) leg	AHD/W7
	kneel, knelt	vb.wk.intrans	to bend knee, fall/rest on knee(s)	AHD/W7
	orthogonal	adj	mutually perpendicular	AHD/W7
	polygonum	n	knotgrass	AHD/W7
	pycnogonid	n	sea spider	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	knē/knī/kniu	n.str.neut	knee	GED
Dutch:	knie	n.fem	knee	ASD
Old Saxon:	kneo/knio	n.str.neut	knee	GED
Old High German:	chniu	n.str.neut	knee	GED
	kneo/kniu	n.neut	knee	W7/ASD
Middle High German:	knie	n.neut	knee	ASD
German:	Knie	n.neut	knee	ASD
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	kné	n.neut	knee	LRC
Old Icelandic:	knē	n.str.neut	knee	GED
Icelandic:	knē	n.neut	knee	ASD
Danish:	knæ	n.neut	knee	ASD
Swedish:	knä	n.neut	knee	ASD
E-Germanic
Gothic:	*kniu	n.neut	knee	GED
Italic
Latin:	diagonalis	adj	from angle to angle	W7
	geniculatus	adj	with nodules, bent	W7
	geniculum	n.neut	nodule, little knee	W7
	genū	n.neut	knee	GED
	orthogonius	adj	orthogonal, with straigth angles	W7
Late Latin:	genuflecto, genuflectere	vb	to kneel	W7
New Latin:	-gonum	n.sfx	of angles	W7
	polygonum	n.neut	(genus name for) knotgrass	W7
Middle French:	orthogonal	adj	orthogonal, with straight angles	W7
Hellenic
Greek:	γνύξ	adj	on one's knees	GED
	γνύ-πετος	adj	sinking to one's knees	GED
	γόνῠ	n.neut	knee	LRC
	gōnia	n.fem	angle	W7
	-gōnon	afx	side	W7
	diagōnios	adj	from angle to angle	W7
	orthogōnios	adj	orthogonal, with straight angles	W7
	polygonon	n.neut	knotgrass	W7
	πρό-χνυ	adj	on one's knees	GED
Anatolian
Hittite:	genu	n	knee	LRC
Armenian
Classical Armenian:	cunr	n	knee	LRC
Iranian
Middle Persian:	zānūk	n	knee	GED
New Persian:	zānū	n	knee	GED
Avestan:	fra-šnuš	adj	with bent knee	GED
	žanva	n.pl	knees	GED
Indic
Sanskrit:	jā́nu	n.masc/neut	knee	GED/ASD
	jñu-bā́dh-	adj	bending the knees	GED
	pra-jñuṣ	adj	with bent knee	GED
Tocharian
Tocharian B:	kenīne	n.du	(two) knees	GED
Tocharian A:	kanweṃ	n.du	(two) knees	GED

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
afx	=	affix
du	=	dual (number)
fem	=	feminine (gender)
intrans	=	intransitive
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
pl	=	plural (number)
sfx	=	suffix
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)
GED	=	Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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