The University of Texas at Austin; College of Liberal Arts

Hans C. Boas, Director :: PCL 5.556, 1 University Station S5490 :: Austin, TX 78712 :: 512-471-4566

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. lē(i)- 'to weaken, leave behind; feeble'

Semantic Fields: Weak, Infirm; to Leave, Relinquish

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	forlǣtan, forlēt, forlēton, forlǣten	vb.str.VII	to leave, forsake, abandon	LRC
	læt	adj	late	W7
	lǣtan, lēt, lēton, lǣten	vb.str.VII	to let, allow	LRC
	lætra	adj.comp	later	W7
	latost	adj.sup	last	W7
Middle English:	alas	interj	alas	W7
	allegeaunce	n	allegiance	W7
	last	adj	last	W7
	late	adj	late	W7
	latter	adj	latter	W7
	leten	vb	to let	W7
	liege	adj	liege	W7
	ligeaunce	n	allegiance	AHD
English:	alas	interj	used to express pity/concern/unhappiness	AHD/W7
	allegiance	n	obligation of feudal vassal to liege lord	AHD/W7
	lassitude	n	fatigue, weariness	AHD/W7
	last	adj	following all others	AHD/W7
	late	adj	coming/remaining after due/proper/usual time	AHD/W7
	latter	adj	later, more recent	AHD/W7
	lenient	adj	relieving pain/stress	AHD/W7
	lenis	adj	produced with lax articulation/weak expiration	AHD/W7
	lenitive	adj	mitigating, alleviating pain/acrimony	AHD/W7
	let, let	vb.str	to make, cause to	AHD/W7
	liege	adj	having right/obligation to render feudal service/allegiance	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	let	adj	late, slow	ASD
	let	n	serf	W7
	lēta	vb	to let, allow	ASD
Dutch:	laten	vb	to let	TLL
	verlaten	vb	to forsake, let go	ASD
Old Saxon:	lat	adj	late, slow	ASD
	lātan	vb	to let, allow	ASD
Old High German:	laz	adj	slow	W7
	lāz(z)an	vb	to let, allow, permit	W7/ASD
German:	lass	adj	late, slow	ASD
	lassen	vb	to let	TLL
	verlassen	vb.str	to quit, leave, forsake, abandon	ASD
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	láta	vb	to let, allow; yield, concede	LRC
Icelandic:	latr	adj	late, slow	ASD
	lāta	vb	to let, allow	ASD
Danish:	lade	vb	to let	TLL
Swedish:	låta	vb	to let	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	lats	adj	slothful	ASD
	lētan	vb	to let, allow	ASD
Italic
Latin:	lassitudo	n.fem	lassitude	W7
	lassus	adj	weary	W7
	leniens, lenientis	vb.ptc	lenient, with soft rule	W7
	lenio, lenīre, lenīvī, lenītus	vb	to soften, soothe	W7
	lēnis	adj	soft, mild, smooth, gentle	W7
Late Latin:	laeticus	n.masc	serf	W7
Medieval Latin:	lenitivus	adj	lenitive, softening	W7
Old French:	alas	interj	alas	W7
	las	adj	weary	W7
	li(e)ge	n.masc	feudal servant; feudal lord	W7
	ligeance	n.fem	allegiance	W7
Middle French:	lassitude	n.fem	fatigue	W7
	lenitif	adj	lenitive, that makes things softer	W7
	ligeance	n.fem	allegiance	W7
Baltic
Latvian:	lēni	adv	slowly	LRC
Albanian
Gheg:	lą	vb	to leave	IEW
Tosk:	lë	vb	to leave	IEW

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
VII	=	class 7
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
comp	=	comparative
fem	=	feminine (gender)
interj	=	interjection
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
ptc	=	participle
str	=	strong (inflection)
sup	=	superlative
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)
IEW	=	Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

Nearby etyma: previous | next