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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.

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. sek^u̯- 'to see, notice; show, say, speak'

Semantic Fields: to See; to Show; to Say; to Speak, Talk

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	gesēon, geseah, gesǣgon, gesegen	vb.str.V	to see, observe	LRC
	gesiht/gesi(e)hþ/gesyhþ	n.fem	sight, vision, power of seeing	W7/ASD
	saga/sagu	n.masc/fem	saw/saga, speech	ASD
	secg(e)an, sægde, sægd	vb.wk.III	to say, tell (a tale), recite (a poem)	ASD
	secgg(e)an/sæcgan	vb.wk.III	to say, tell (a tale), recite (a poem)	ASD
	sēon, seah, sǣgon, segen	vb.str.V	to see, look	LRC
Middle English:	gainsayen	vb	to gainsay	W7
	sawe	n	saw	W7
	sayen	vb	to say	W7
	scald	n	scold	W7
	scold	n	scold	W7
	seen	vb	to see	W7
	sight	n	sight	W7
English:	gainsay, gainsaid	vb.wk.trans	to deny, dispute	AHD/W7
	saga	n	tale, story, narrative	AHD
	saw	n	maxim, saying, proverb	AHD/W7
	say, said	vb.wk	to state, express in words	AHD/W7
	scold	n	one addicted to ribald abusive speech	AHD/W7
	see, saw, seen	vb.str	to perceive by eye/sight	AHD/W7
	sight	n	spectacle, something seen	AHD/W7
	sight	vb.trans	to get/catch view of	W7
	skald	n	bard, ancient Scandinavian poet/historiographer	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	sega/sedsa	vb	to say, tell	ASD
	sia	vb	to see	ASD
Dutch:	zeggen	vb	to say, tell	LRC
	zien	vb	to see	LRC
Old Saxon:	seggian	vb	to say, tell	ASD
	sehan	vb	to see	ASD
Old High German:	gisiht	n	sight	W7
	saga/sega	n.fem	saw/saga, speech	ASD
	sagēn	vb	to say, tell	W7
	sehan	vb	to see	W7
German:	Gesicht	n.neut	sight; face, visage	LRC
	Sage	n.fem	saga, history	LRC
	sagen	vb	to say	LRC
	sehen	vb	to see	LRC
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	saga	n.fem	saw/saga, history	LRC
	segja, sagða	vb	to say, speak; tell, relate	LRC
	sjá	vb	to see, perceive; look, find; understand	LRC
	skāld	n	skald	W7
Icelandic:	saga	n	saga	ASD
	seg(g)ja	vb	to say, tell	ASD
	sjá	vb	to see	ASD
	skālda	vb	to make scurrilous verse	W7
	sög	n.fem	saw	ASD
Danish:	se	vb	to see	LRC
	sige	vb	to say, tell	LRC
	sigte	vb	to sight	LRC
Swedish:	se	vb	to see	LRC
	sikta	vb	to sight	LRC
	säga	vb	to say, tell	LRC
E-Germanic
Gothic:	saíƕan	vb.str.V	to see	LRC
Italic
Latin:	inquam	vb.defc	to say	LRC
Hellenic
Greek:	ennepein	vb	to speak, tell	W7

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
III	=	class 3
V	=	class 5
defc	=	defective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
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)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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