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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. rēd- : rōd- : rəd- 'to gnaw, scrape, scratch'

Semantic Fields: to Bite; to Rub

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	ræt	n	rat	W7
Middle English:	corroden	vb	to corrode	W7
	rape	n	rape	W7
	rascaile	n	(one of the) rabble	W7
	rasour	n	razor	W7
	rat	n	rat	W7
English:	abrade	vb	to erode, rub/wear away (by friction)	AHD/W7
	corrade	vb	to wear away via abrasion	AHD/W7
	corrode	vb	to eat away slowly as if by gnawing	AHD/W7
	erase	vb	to rub/scrape out (e.g. written letters)	AHD/W7
	erode	vb	to destroy/diminish by degrees	AHD/W7
	Morgul-rats	prop.n.pl	orc guards in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	raclette	n	Swiss dish similar to fondue	AHD/CDC
	radula	n	horny band/ribbon of minute teeth in non-bivalve mollusks	AHD/W7
	rape	n	European herb in mustard family	AHD/W7
	rappee	n	pungent snuff made from rank tobacco leaves	AHD/W7
	rascal	n	mean/dishonest/unprincipled person	AHD/W7
	rash	n	eruption on skin	AHD/W7
	rasorial	adj	habitually scratching ground (in food search)	AHD/W7
	raster	n	screen for photo-engraving	AHD/W7
	rat	n	rodent akin to mouse	AHD/W7
	ratine	n	nubby ply (thick and thin) yarn	AHD/W7
	ratteen	n	coarse woolen fabric	AHD/W7
	raze	vb	to demolish, level to the ground	AHD
	razor	n	keen-edged knife for shaving/cutting hair	AHD/W7
	rodent	n	small gnawing mammal with chisel-shaped incisors	AHD/W7
	rostrum	n	platform for public orators	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Dutch:	ratta	n	rat	ASD
Dutch:	rat	n	rat	TLL
Old High German:	rāba	n	rape, turnip	W7
	rato	n.masc	rat	ASD
	ratta	n.fem	rat	ASD
German:	Raster	n.masc	raster	W7
	Ratte	n.fem	rat	ASD
	Rübe	n.fem	rape	IEW
N-Germanic
Icelandic:	rotta	n.fem	rat	ASD
Swedish:	råtta	n	rat; mouse	TLL
Italic
Latin:	abrado, abradere	vb	to scrape off	W7
	corrado, corradere	vb	to scrape together	W7
	corrodo, corrodere	vb	to gnaw to pieces	W7
	erado, eradere	vb	to erase	W7
	erasus	vb.ptc	erased	W7
	erodo, erodere	vb	to eat away	W7
	rado, radere	vb	to scrape, scratch	W7
	radula	n.fem	scraper	W7
	rāpum	n.neut	rape, turnip	W7
	raster	n.masc	rake	W7
	rastrum	n.neut	rake	W7
	rasus	vb.ptc	scratched	W7
	rodens, rodentis	adj/vb.ptc	gnawing	W7
	rodo, rodere	vb	to gnaw	W7
	Rostra	prop.n.neut.pl	platform for speakers in Roman Forum	W7
	rostrum	n.neut	beak, prow of ship	W7
Vulgar Latin:	rasica	n.fem	rash	W7
	rasico, rasicāre	vb	to scratch	W7
Late Latin:	rasor	n.masc	scraper	W7
Old French:	raseor	n.masc	razor	W7
	raser	vb	to raze, shave	W7
French:	rache	n.fem	scurf	W7
	râpe	n.fem	grater; grape stalk	W7
	râpé	vb.ptc	grated	W7
	ratine	n.fem	type of absorbing fabric	W7
	ratiné	adj	fabric that looks like ratine	W7

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
ptc	=	participle
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)
CDC	=	W.D. Whitney and B.E. Smith: The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (1889-1911)
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)

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