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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: 7. (s)ter-n- 'thorn, prickly stalk'

Semantic Fields: Sharp; Branch

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	æppel-ðorn	n.masc	crab-apple (tree), lit. apple-thorn	ASD
	slāh-þorn	n.masc	blackthorn, lit. sloe-thorn	ASD
	þorn	n.masc	thorn; (name for) TH-rune	GED
	þyrne	n.fem	thornbush	GED
	þyrnen	adj	thorny	GED
Middle English:	thorn	n	thorn	W7
English:	Appledore	prop.n	Bree surname in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	blackthorn	n	sloe (tree): Prunus spinosa	W7
	Pickthorn	prop.n	Bree surname in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	thorn	n	sharp woody plant spine	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	thorn	n.masc	thorn, spine, prickle	ASD
	thornen	adj	re: thorns	ASD
Old Saxon:	þorn	n.masc	thorn, spine, prickle	GED/ASD
Old Low German:	thorn	n.masc	thorn, spine, prickle	ASD
Old High German:	dorn	n.masc	thorn, spine, prickle	W7/ASD
	durnīn	adj	thorny	ASD
	þorn	n.str.masc	thorn	GED
German:	Dorn	n.masc	thorn	LRC
N-Germanic
Old Icelandic:	stirðr	adj	stiff	GED
	storð	n.fem	grass, stalk, stem	GED
	þorn	n	thorn	GED
	þyrnir	n.masc	thornbush	GED
Icelandic:	þorn	n.masc	thorn: name of letter	ASD
	þyrnir	n.fem	thorn	ASD
Danish:	slaaentorn	n	blackthorn, lit. sloe-thorn	ASD
E-Germanic
Gothic:	*þaurnus	n.str.masc	thorn, thorny plant	GED/ASD
Slavic
Old Church Slavonic:	strъnь	n	stalk	GED
	trъnъ	n	thorny plant	GED
Hellenic
Hesychius' Greek Lexicon:	τέρνακα	n	stem of cardoon fruit	GED
Iranian
New Persian:	tarrah	n	grass	GED
Khotanese:	tarra-	n	grass	GED
Indic
Sanskrit:	tŕ̥ṇam	n	grass, straw	GED
	tṛṇa	n	grass, blade of grass	W7

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
prop	=	proper
str	=	strong (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
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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