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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: 2. ghrebh- 'to dig, grub, grave, scratch'

Semantic Fields: to Dig, Delve; to Rub

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	græf/graf	n.str.neut	grave	GED/ASD
	græft	n	sculpture, carved object	RPN
	grafan	vb.str	to grave, bury	RPN/GED
	grafere	n	carver, sculptor	RPN
	grafu	n.fem	hollow	GED
Middle English:	grave	n	grave	W7
	graven	vb	to grave	W7
	groof	n	groove	W7
	grubbe	n	grub, insect	W7
	grubben	vb	to dig, grub	W7
English:	engrave	vb.trans	to form (on wood/metal) by incision	AHD/W7
	graben	n	depressed segment of earth's crust bounded on sides by faults	AHD/W7
	grave	n	excavation for burial of body	AHD/W7
	grave	vb.trans	to dig, excavate	AHD/W7
	gravlax	n	salmon cured in salt/sugar/dill	AHD
	gravure	n	process for producing printing plate on wood/copper	AHD/W7
	groove	n	long narrow channel/depression	AHD/W7
	grub	n	soft thick wormlike insect larva	AHD/W7
	grub	vb	to clear by digging out roots/stumps	AHD/W7
	Grubb	prop.n	hobbit surname in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	greb	n	grave	ASD
	gref	n.str.neut	grave	GED
	greva	vb	to grave	GED
	grova	vb	to grovel	GED
Old Saxon:	(bi-)graƀan	vb	to grave	ASD
	graf	n.str.neut	grave	GED
Old High German:	grab	n	grave	W7
	graba	n.wk.fem	spade	RPN/GED
	graban	vb	to grave, bury	RPN
	graft/grefti	n.fem	carving, sculpture	ASD
	grap	n.str.neut	grave	GED
	grubilōn	vb.wk	to dig, bury	GED
German:	Grab	n.neut	grave	ASD
	graben	vb	to grave, trench	W7
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	grafa	vb.str	to grave, bury; inlay, engrave	GED
Old Icelandic:	grufla	vb	to grovel	GED
	græfr	adj	to be buried	GED
	grǫf	n.fem	grave, hollow	GED
Icelandic:	grafa	vb	to grave	ASD
	graflax	n	gravlax	LRC
	gröf	n.fem	grave	ASD
Norwegian:	gravlaks	n	gravlax	LRC
	gruvla	vb	to grovel	GED
Danish:	gravlaks	n	gravlax	LRC
	grævling	n	badger	TLL
Swedish:	grǣva	vb	to grave	GED
	grävling	n	badger	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	*bi-graban	vb.str.VI	to surround (with a rampart)	GED
	*graba	n.fem	rampart	GED
	graban	vb.str.VI	to grave	RPN/GED
	*grōba	n.fem	hole	RPN/GED
	*uf-graban	vb.str.VI	to dig up	GED
	*us-graban	vb.str.VI	to dig out	RPN/GED
Italic
Middle French:	engraver	vb	to engrave	W7
French:	gravure	n.fem	(art of) engraving	W7
Baltic
Lithuanian:	grėbiu, grėbti	vb	to rake	RPN
	grėblẽlis	n	rake	RPN
Latvian:	greblis	n	rake, scraper	GED
	grebt	vb	to scrape, hollow out	GED
Slavic
Serbo-Croatian:	grèbtsi	vb	to scratch	RPN
Old Church Slavonic:	greti, grebǫ, grebeši	vb	to scrape, scratch	GED
	grobъ	n.masc	grave, ditch	LRC
	pogreti, pogrebǫ, pogrebeši	vb	to bury	LRC
Russian:	grábli	n	rake	RPN

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
VI	=	class 6
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
prop	=	proper
str	=	strong (inflection)
trans	=	transitive
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
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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