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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: 1. (s)ter-, (s)terə- : (s)trē- 'stark, stiff, solid, rigid, etc.'

Semantic Fields: Strong, Mighty, Powerful; Hard

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	starian	vb.wk	to stare	W7/ASD
	stearc	adj	stiff, rigid	W7
	steorfan	vb	to starve	W7
	steort	n	tail	LRC
	*stercan	vb	to starch, stiffen	W7
	storc	n.masc	stork	W7
	strīdan, strād, stridon, striden	vb.str	to stride, walk	IEW/ASD
	stride	n.masc	stride, pace	ASD
	strīman	vb	to strime; resist, oppose	ASD
	strīmendi	adj	striving, resisting	IEW
	strūtian	vb	to exert oneself	W7
	styrne	adj	stern	W7
	þrot-bolla	n.masc	throttle, gullet	IEW/ASD
	þrote	n	throttle	IEW
	þrotu	n.fem	throat	IEW/ASD
Middle English:	staren	vb	to stare	W7
	stark	adj	stark	W7
	sterchen	vb	to starch, stiffen	W7
	sterne	adj	stern	W7
	sterten	vb	to start	W7
	stertlen	vb.freq	to startle	W7
	sterven	vb	to starve	W7
	stork	n	stork	W7
	striden	vb	to stride	W7
	strompat/strumpet	n	strumpet	OED
	strouten	vb	to strut	W7
	struglen	vb	to struggle	W7
	throte	n	throat	W7
	throtlen	vb	to throttle	W7
English:	anastrophe	n	inversion of usual syntactic word order	AHD/W7
	apostrophe	n	mark (') used to indicate plural/possessive-case/letter-omission	AHD/W7
	boustrophedon	adj	re: writing alternate lines in alternate directions	AHD/W7
	catastrophe	n	final event of drama (esp. tragedy)	AHD/W7
	cholesterol	n	steroid alcohol in animal cells/body fluids	AHD/W7
	diastrophism	n	deformation of earth's crust	AHD/W7
	redstart	n	small European songbird with rust-red breast/tail	AHD
	starch	vb.trans	to stiffen (with starch)	AHD/W7
	stare	vb	to look fixedly	AHD/W7
	stark	adj	strong, robust	AHD/W7
	Starkhorn	prop.n	Rohan mountain in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	start	vb	to jump, move suddenly/violently	AHD/W7
	startle	vb	to move/jump suddenly (in alarm/surprise)	AHD/W7
	starve	vb	to perish from want of food	AHD/W7
	stere	n	unit of volume: 1 cu. meter	AHD/W7
	sterigma	n	stalk, support, slender projection	AHD/CDC
	stern	adj	austere, hard/severe in nature/manner	AHD/W7
	stork	n	large Old World wading bird	AHD/W7
	strabismus	n	inability to attain binocular vision	AHD/W7
	strabotomy	n	surgical incision of eye muscle/tendon	AHD
	strafe	vb	to rake with gunfire	W7
	strepto-	pfx	twisted	AHD/W7
	streptomycin	n	antibiotic for bacterial infections	AHD
	streptonigrin	n	highly toxic antibiotic for tumors	AHD
	stride, strode, stridden	vb.str	to stand astride, walk with long steps	W7
	stride	n	long step	W7
	Strider	prop.n	man a.k.a. Aragorn in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	strime	vb.dial	to stride	IEW
	strobilus	n	aggregation of sporophylls resembling cone	AHD/W7
	stroboscope	n	instrument for measuring speed/frequency of rotation/vibration	AHD/W7
	strop	n	strap, strip of leather/canvas	AHD
	strophe	n	turning movement of classical Greek chorus	AHD/W7
	strophoid	n	nodal plane cubic curve	AHD/CDC
	strophulus	n	red-gum: papular skin eruption	AHD
	struggle	vb	to strive, use strong/violent effort	IEW/W7
	strumpery	n.obs	whoredom, harlotry, prostitution	OED
	strumpet	n	whore, harlot, prostitute	OED
	strut	vb	to swell, become turgid	AHD/W7
	throat	n	part of neck in front of spinal column	IEW/W7
	thropple	n	throttle	IEW
	throttle	n	throat, windpipe, trachea	IEW
	throttle	vb	to choke, compress throat	W7
	torpedo	n	electric ray	AHD/W7
	torpid	adj	numb, dormant, without motion/feeling/power of exertion	AHD/W7
	torpor	n	state of mental/motor inactivity	AHD/W7
Scots English:	strunt	vb.dial	to strut, swagger	IEW/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	sterk	adj	stiff, rigid, hard	ASD
	strīd	n	strife	ASD
	strīda	vb.wk	to contend	ASD
Dutch:	staart	n	tail	TLL
	struik	n	bush	TLL
Old Saxon:	stark	adj	hard, stiff, rigid	ASD
	strīd	n	strife, contest	ASD
	strīdian	vb	to dispute, contend	ASD
Old High German:	drozza	n	throat	W7
	starc/starah	adj	stark	W7/ASD
	starēn	vb	to stare	W7
	sterban	vb	to die	W7
	sterz	n	tail	LRC
	storah/storc	n	stork	W7/ASD
	strīt	n	strife, contest	ASD
	strītan	vb.str	to dispute, contend	ASD
Middle High German:	sterzen	vb	to stand stiffly, move quickly	W7
German:	stark	adj	strong	LRC
	starren	vb	to stare	LRC
	sterben	vb	to die	LRC
	Storch	n.masc	stork	LRC
	strafen	vb	to fine, punish, chastise	TLL
	Strauch	n.masc	bush, shrub	LRC
	Strumpf	n.masc	sock, stocking	TLL
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	starf	n.neut	work, trouble	LRC
	sterkr	adj	stark	LRC
	stertr	n	tail	LRC
	strúpi	n	throat	LRC
Icelandic:	stara	vb	to stare	ASD
	sterkr	adj	stark	ASD
	storkr	n	stork	ASD
Danish:	stork	n	stork	TLL
	straffe	vb	to punish	TLL
	strube	n	throat (internal)	TLL
	strømpe	n	stocking	TLL
Swedish:	stork	n	stork	TLL
	strumpa	n	stocking	TLL
	strupe	n	throat (internal)	TLL
Italic
Latin:	stirps	n.fem	trunk, root	W7
	strenuus	adj	strenuous	W7
	struma	n.fem	goiter	W7
	torpedo	n.fem	torpor, numbness	W7
	torpeo, torpēre	vb	to be stiff/numb	W7
	torpidus	adj	torpid	W7
	torpor	n.masc	slumber, stiffness	W7
Late Latin:	anastrophē	n	anastrophe	AHD
	apostrophus	n.masc	turning away	W7
	strobilus	n.masc	pine cone	W7
New Latin:	strabismus	n.masc	strabismus, condition of squinting	W7
	strepto-	vb.ptc	strepto-	W7
	strobilus	n.masc	twisted object, pine cone	W7
Middle French:	apostrophe	n.fem	apostrophe	W7
French:	apostrophe	n	apostrophe	AHD
	cholésterine	n.fem	solid cholesterol	W7
	stère	n.masc	stere	W7/R1
Baltic
Lithuanian:	starinti	vb	to stiffen	W7
Slavic
Old Church Slavonic:	straxъ	n.masc	terror	LRC
Hellenic
Homeric Greek:	ἀπο-στρέφω	vb	to turn/twist back/away	LRC
	στερεός	adj	hard, stiff, solid	LRC
	στρεπτός	adj	twisted, braided	LRC
	στρέφω	vb	to turn, twist	LRC
	στρωφάω	vb	to tarry, keep turning	LRC
Greek:	ἀνα-στρέφω	vb	to turn back	LRC
	ana-strophē	n.fem	turning back	W7
	apo-strophos	adj	turned away	W7
	bou-strophēdon	adv	turning like oxen (in plowing)	W7
	δια-στρέφω	vb	to distort	LRC
	dia-strophē	n.fem	twisting	W7
	κατα-στρέφω	vb	to overturn	LRC
	kata-strophē	n.fem	catastrophe, overturning	W7
	strabizein	vb	to squint	W7
	strabismos	n.masc	strabismus, condition of squinting	W7
	strabos	adj	squinting, squint-eyed	W7
	strobilos	n.masc	pine cone	W7
	strobos	n.masc	action of whirling	W7
	strophē	n.fem	act of turning	W7
	ὑπο-στρέφω	vb	to turn away	LRC

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
dial	=	dialectal
fem	=	feminine (gender)
freq	=	frequentative (aspect)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
obs	=	obsolete
pfx	=	prefix
prop	=	proper
ptc	=	participle
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)
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
OED	=	James A.H. Murray et al: The Oxford English Dictionary (1933)
R1	=	Josette Rey-Debove and Alain Rey, eds. Le Nouveau Petit Robert (1993)
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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