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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: mori, mōri 'mere, sea'

Semantic Field: Sea

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	mere/mære	n.masc	mere	ASD
	mere-hūs	n.neut	lit. sea-house	LRC
	mere-men(n)/mere-men(n)en	n.fem	siren	ASD
	mere-næddra	n.masc	lamprey, lit. sea-adder	ASD
	mere-swīn	n.neut	dolphin, porpoise, lit. sea-pig	ASD
	mere-wērig	adj	weary of seafaring, lit. sea-weary	ASD
	mere-wīf	n.neut	water-witch, woman living in lake	ASD
	mer(i)sc	n.masc	marsh	W7
Middle English:	cormeraunt	n	cormorant	W7
	marine	adj	marine	W7
	mere	n	mere	W7
	mersh	n	marsh	W7
English:	beche-de-mer	n	trepang, lit. sea grub	AHD/W7
	cormorant	n	dark-colored web-footed seabird	AHD/W7
	maar	n	circular flat-bottomed volcanic crater	AHD
	mare	n	extensive dark area on surface of moon/Mars	AHD/W7
	mariculture	n	cultivation of marine organisms	AHD
	marinara	n	tomato sauce with onion/garlic/spices	AHD
	marine	adj	re: sea	AHD/W7
	Marish	prop.n	marshy Shire area in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	maritime	adj	re: sea commerce/navigation	AHD/W7
	marram	n	beach grass	AHD
	marsh	n	soft wet land usu. having monocotyledons (grasses/cattails)	AHD/W7
	meerkat	n	small mongoose-like S African mammal	AHD
	meerschaum	n	hydrous magnesium silicate: light, fine white clay/mineral	AHD/W7
	mere	n	sea, lake, pool, sheet of standing water	AHD/W7
	mermaid	n	fabled marine creature: fish-tailed woman	W7
	merman, mermen	n	fabled marine creature: fish-tailed man	W7
	Mirrormere	prop.n	glassy lake in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	morass	n	marsh, swamp	AHD/W7
	Shadowmere	prop.n	reflecting lake in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	ultramarine	adj	lit. beyond the sea	AHD/W7
	ultramarine	n	blue pigment: powdered lapis lazuli	AHD/W7
British English:	ormer	n	sea-ear, ear-shell, Channel Islands abalone	AHD
W-Germanic
Middle Dutch:	mersch	n	marsh	W7
Dutch:	meer	n	mere	TLL
	mierikswortel	n	horseradish	TLL
	moeras	n	morass	W7
Old Saxon:	meri	n.fem	mere	ASD
Old High German:	meri/mari	n.masc/neut	mere	W7/ASD
	meri-ratih	n	horseradish	KDW
German:	Maar	n.neut	maar, volcanic lake	AHD
	Marsch	n.fem	marsh	LRC
	Meer	n.neut	mere	ASD
	Meerrettich	n	horseradish	TLL
	Morast	n.masc	morass	LRC
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	marr	n.masc	mere	LRC
Icelandic:	marr	n.masc	mere	ASD
E-Germanic
Gothic:	marei	n.wk.fem	mere	LRC
Italic
Latin:	mare, maris	n.neut	mere	LRC
	marinus	adj	re: sea	W7
	maritimus	adj	maritime	W7
Vulgar Latin:	*mara	n	maar, lake, standing water	AHD
Medieval Latin:	ultramarinus	adj	(coming from) beyond the sea	W7
Portuguese:	bicho-do-mar	n	beche-de-mer	AHD
Old French:	cormareng	n.masc	cormorant	W7
	marenc	adj	re: sea	W7
	maresc	n	marsh	W7
Middle French:	cormorant	n.masc	cormorant	W7
French:	bêche-de-mer	n.fem	beche-de-mer	W7

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
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)
KDW	=	Gerhard Köbler: Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 4th ed. (1993)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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