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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: gēu-, gəu-, gū- 'to bend, curl; cup, vessel'

Semantic Fields: to Bend; Cup; Jug, Pitcher

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	āttorcoppa/āttercoppe/āt(t)orcoppe	n.fem	attercop, lit. venom-spider	OED/ASD
	cicen	n.neut	chicken	W7/ASD
	cofa	n.masc	cove, closet	RPN/ASD
	copp	n.masc	cup, goblet; peak, summit	IEW
	coppa	n	spider	OED
	cupp	n.masc	cup, goblet	IEW
	cuppe	n.fem	cup, goblet	W7/ASD
	cycgel	n	cudgel	W7
	cȳf(e)	n.fem	tub, vat, cask	RPN/ASD
	cȳfl	n	tub, bucket	RPN
	*cȳpe	n	kipe	IEW
Middle English:	attercop(pe)	n	attercop	CDC
	chiken	n	chicken	W7
	coppeweb	n	cobweb	W7
	cove	n	cove, den	W7
	cuppe	n	cup	W7
	kuggel	n	cudgel	W7
	kype	n	kipe	W2I
English:	Attercop	prop.n	epithet for spider in Tolkien: The Hobbit	LRC
	attercop	n	(poisonous) spider	OED
	chicken	n	common domestic fowl	IEW/W7
	Cob	prop.n	epithet for spider in Tolkien: The Hobbit	LRC
	cob	n	spider; head, round clump	IEW
	cobweb	n	lit. spider web	W7
	cove	n	chamber, cavity, recessed place	IEW/W7
	cub	n	young carnivorous mammal	IEW/W7
	cudgel	n	short heavy club	IEW/W7
	cup	n	small bowl-shaped drinking vessel	W7
	kipe	n	osier basket, plaited fish trap	IEW/W2I
	kyte/kite	n	belly, stomach, abdomen	IEW/W2I
Scots English:	ettercap	n	attercop	CDC
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	kopp	n	cup, goblet	IEW
Dutch:	kieken/kuiken	n.neut	chicken	ASD
	kuip	n.fem	tub	ASD
	kuit	n	calf (of leg)	TLL
Old Saxon:	cōpa	n.fem	cup, vat, vessel	ASD
Middle Low German:	kopp	n	cup, goblet	IEW
Old High German:	kopf/chuph	n	cup, goblet	IEW
	kuofa	n.fem	cup, vat, vessel	ASD
Middle High German:	kobe	n	stable, pigsty	RPN
	kuofe	n.fem	vessel	ASD
German:	Dummkopf	n.masc	dummkopf, blockhead, simpleton	LRC
	Kopf	n.masc	head	IEW
	Kufe	n.fem	cup, vessel	ASD
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	koddi	n	cushion	KNW
Old Icelandic:	kofi	n	hut, shed	RPN
	kúfóttr	adj	convex	RPN
Icelandic:	kūpa	n.fem	bowl, box, basin	ASD
Danish:	edderkop	n	attercop	CDC
	kippe/kyper	n.masc/fem	dyer's tub	ASD
	kylling	n	chicken	ASD
	ædder-cop	n	cup of poison, lit. atter-cup	ICE
Swedish:	kudde	n	cushion	SAO/TLL
	kupa	n.fem	case, box	ASD
	kyckling	n.masc	chicken	ASD
	kyp	n.masc	dyer's tub	ASD
Italic
Latin:	cupa	n.fem	cask, vat, vessel	ASD
Late Latin:	cuppa	n.fem	cup	W7
Middle Latin:	cuppa	n.fem	cup, vat, vessel	ASD
Spanish:	cuba	n.fem	cask for wine/oil	ASD
French:	cuve	n.fem	vat, vessel	ASD
Hellenic
Greek:	γύπη	n	cave, den, hole	RPN
	γῡρεύω	vb	to run around in a circle	RPN
	γυ̃ρος	n	ring, circle	RPN
	γῡρός	adj	round	RPN
Indic
Sanskrit:	gulī	n	globe, pill	RPN
	gola-ḥ	n	globe, ball, ball-shaped jar	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
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)
ICE	=	Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson: An Icelandic-English Dictionary (1874)
IEW	=	Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
KNW	=	Gerhard Köbler: Altnordisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed. (2003)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
OED	=	James A.H. Murray et al: The Oxford English Dictionary (1933)
RPN	=	Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002)
SAO	=	Swedish Academy: Svenska Akademiens Ordbok (2011)
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W2I	=	Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd ed. (1959)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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