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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: leuk- 'to light, shine; see'

Semantic Fields: to Light, Kindle; to Shine, Glisten; to See

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Old Irish:	lōchet	n	light(n)ing	LRC
	luchair	n	radiance	LRC
English
Old English:	lēah	n.masc	lea	W7/ASD
	lē(o)ht/līht	adj	light, clear	ASD
	lēoht/līht	n.neut	light	W7/ASD
	lēohtan	vb.wk	to light, shine	ASD
	lēoma	n.masc	ray, gleam; radiance	GED
	lox	n.masc	lynx	W7/ASD
	Lucifer	prop.n	Lucifer: the Devil symbolized by the morning star (Venus)	W7
Middle English:	levene	n	levin	GED
	leye	n	lea	W7
	light	n	light	W7
	lightning	n	lightning	W7
	Lucifer	prop.n	Lucifer: the Devil symbolized by the morning star (Venus)	W7
	luculent	adj	luculent	W7
	luminarye	n	luminary	W7
	luminen/limnen	vb	to illuminate (a manuscript)	W7
	luminous	adj	luminous	W7
	luna	n	luna	W7
	lunatik	n	lunatic	W7
	lustre	n	luster	W7
	once	n	ounce	W7
English:	elucidate	vb	to clarify via explanation	AHD/W7
	elucubration	n	night study	AHD
	illuminate	vb.trans	to supply/brighten with light	AHD/W7
	illustrate	vb	to enlighten	AHD/W7
	lea	n	pasture, grassland	AHD/W7
	levin	n	lightning	GED
	light, lit	vb.wk	to brighten, illuminate	W7
	light	adj	bright, shining, luminous	LRC
	light	n	brightness, illumination, that which makes vision possible	AHD/W7
	lightning	n	flash of light from atmospheric electric discharge	AHD/W7
	limbers	n.pl	gutters/conduits that provide passage for water to pump well	AHD/W7
	Limlight	prop.n	Rohan border river in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	limn	vb.trans	to draw	AHD/W7
	link	n	torch used to light one's way through streets	AHD/W7
	lucent	adj	luminous, glowing with light	AHD/W7
	lucid	adj	luminous, suffused with light	AHD/W7
	Lucifer	prop.n	morning star symbolic of an angel (Satan) before his fall	AHD/W7
	lucifer	n	friction match	W7
	luciferin	n	pigment in luminescent organism providing nearly-heatless light	AHD/W7
	Lucina	prop.n	Juno, as goddess of childbirth (Roman mythology)	LRC
	lucubrate	vb	to write in scholarly fashion	AHD
	luculent	adj	lucid, clear in thought/expression	AHD/W7
	lumen	n	cavity of tubular organ (e.g. blood vessel)	AHD/W7
	luminary	n	someone notable in a chosen field	AHD/W7
	luminous	adj	shining, emitting light	AHD/W7
	Luna	prop.n	Moon goddess (Roman mythology)	AHD
	luna	n	silver	W7
	lunar	adj	re: moon	AHD/W7
	lunate	adj	crescent-shaped	AHD/W7
	lunatic	adj	insane, affected by lunacy	AHD/W7
	lune	n	crescent-shaped portion of plane/sphere	AHD
	lunula	n	small crescent-shaped marking/structure	AHD
	luster	n	lustrum	AHD/W7
	luster	n	sheen, glow of reflected light	AHD/W7
	lustrum	n	purification of Roman people after 5-year census	AHD/W7
	lux	n	unit of illumination	AHD/W7
	lychnis	n	herb with terminal cymes of mostly red/white flowers	AHD/W7
	lynx	n	wildcat with long legs/short stubby tail/often tufted ears	AHD/W7
	mezzaluna	n	crescent-shaped knife with 2 handles	AHD
	noctiluca	n	marine bioluminescent flagellates	AHD/W7
	ounce	n	snow leopard	AHD/W7
	pellucid	adj	admitting maximum light passage without diffusion/distortion	AHD/W7
	phillumenist	n	one who collects matchbooks/matchboxes	AHD
	relucent	adj	shining, reflecting light	AHD/W7
	sublunary	adj	terrestrial: situated beneath moon	AHD/W7
	translucent	adj	luminous, shining/glowing through	AHD/W7
	twilight	n	light refracted/reflected by atmosphere while sun is down	AHD
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	liacht	adj/n	light	ASD
Dutch:	licht	n	light	LRC
	lucifer	n	lucifer	TLL
Old Saxon:	lioht	adj/n	light	ASD
	liomo	n.masc	ray, gleam; radiance	GED
Old High German:	lioht/lieht	adj/n	light, candle	W7/ASD
	lōh	n	thicket	W7
	luchs/lohs	n	lynx	ASD
German:	Licht	n.neut	light	ASD
	licht	adj	light	ASD
	Luchs	n	lynx	ASD
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	ljós	n.neut	light, lantern	LRC
	logi	n.masc	flame	LRC
Old Icelandic:	ljōmi	n.masc	ray, gleam; radiance	GED
Icelandic:	ljós	n	light	ASD
	ljóss	adj	light	ASD
Danish:	lyn	n	light	TLL
	lys	n	light	LRC
Swedish:	ljus	n	light	LRC
E-Germanic
Gothic:	*lauhmuni	n.fem	lightning	GED
	liuhaþ/liohaþ	n	light	ASD
Italic
Latin:	illumino, illuminare, illuminavi, illuminatus	vb	to enlighten, illuminate	W7
	illustro, illustrare, illustravi, illustratus	vb	to glorify, make bright	W7
	luceo, lucēre	vb	to shine	W7
	lucidus	adj	lucid	W7
	Lucifer	n	lit. Light Bringer: Venus, the morning star	W7
	lucifer	adj	light-bearing	W7
	Lucina	n.fem	Juno, as goddess of childbirth (Roman mythology)	W7
	luculentus	adj	luminous, brillant	W7
	lūcus	n.masc	grove	W7
	lūmen, lūminis	n.neut	light	GED
	lumino, lumināre	vb	to light up	W7
	luminosus	adj	luminous	W7
	Lūna	prop.n.fem	Luna	LRC
	lūna	n.fem	moon	W7
	lūnāris	adj	lunar	W7
	lūno, lūnāre, lūnāvī, lūnātus	vb	to bend like crescent	W7
	lūstro, lūstrāre	vb	to brighten, purify	W7
	lustrum	n.neut	period of 5 years	W7
	lux, lucis	n.fem	light	LRC
	lychnis	n.fem	red flower	W7
	lychnus	n.masc	lamp	W7
	lynx, lyncis	n.fem	lynx	W7
	noctiluca	n.fem	something shining by night	W7
	reluceo, relucēre	vb	to shine back	W7
	transluceo, translucēre	vb	to shine through	W7
Late Latin:	elucido, elucidare, elucidavi, elucidatus	vb	to elucidate	W7
	luminaria	n.neut.pl	lamps, luminary	W7
	lūnaticus	adj	lunatic	W7
	sublūnāris	adj	sublunary	W7
Medieval Latin:	linchinus	n.masc	candle	W7
	lūna	n.fem	moon, luna	W7
New Latin:	lychnis	n.fem	(genus name)	W7
	noctiluca	n.fem	(genus name for) marine flagellates	W7
Old French:	lonce	n.fem	ounce	W7
	lumière	n.fem	light, opening	W7
	lunatique	adj	lunatic	W7
Middle French:	enluminer	vb	to decorate with enluminures	W7
	luminaire	n.masc	lamp	W7
French:	lumière	n.fem	light	W7
	lune	n	moon	TLL
Old Italian:	lustrare	vb	to brighten	W7
	lustro	n.masc	glow of reflected light	W7
Baltic
Old Prussian:	luckis	n	block of wood	LRC
Lithuanian:	láukas	adj	having a blaze (re: horse)	LRC
	laũkas	n.masc	field	LRC
Slavic
Old Church Slavonic:	luča/luč'	n	gleam, ray of light	LRC
Hellenic
Homeric Greek:	λευκός	adj	white; light, bright, clear	LS
Greek:	λευκαίνω	vb	to make/be(come) white	LS
	λύχνος	n.masc	lamp	LS
Anatolian
Hittite:	lukk-	vb	to light, ignite	LRC
Armenian
Classical Armenian:	loys	n	light	LRC
	lucanem	vb	to light, ignite, burn	LRC
Iranian
Old Persian:	raučah	n	day	LRC
Avestan:	raočah-	adj	bright	LRC
Indic
Sanskrit:	rócate	vb	to shine	LRC
Tocharian
Tokharian:	luk-	n	gleam	LRC

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
pl	=	plural (number)
prop	=	proper
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
LS	=	Liddell and Scott: Greek-English Lexicon, 7th-9th ed's (1882-1940), rev.
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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