The University of Texas at Austin; College of Liberal Arts

Hans C. Boas, Director :: PCL 5.556, 1 University Station S5490 :: Austin, TX 78712 :: 512-471-4566

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: u̯eg̑- 'fresh, strong'

Semantic Field: Strong, Mighty, Powerful

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	ā-wacen	adj	awake	CDC
	ā-wacian	vb	to awake	CDC
	a-wæcnian	vb	to awaken	W7
	wacan, wōc, wōcon, wacen	vb.str	to wake, awake, be born, come into being	W7/ASD
	wacen	n.fem	watch, vigil, wakefulness	W7
	wacian	vb.wk	to wake, be awake	W7/ASD
	wæccan	vb.wk	to watch, wake	W7/ASD
	*wæcnian	vb	to waken	W7/ASD
	wicca	n.masc	wizard, sorcerer, necromancer	W7/AHD
	wicce	n.fem	witch, sorceress	W7
	wīgle	n.neut	divination	W7
Middle English:	awake(n)	adj	awake	CDC
	awak(e)nen	vb	to awaken	W7/CDC
	awak(i)en	vb	to awake	CDC
	bewicchen	vb	to bewitch	AHD
	vigilant	adj	vigilant	W7
	vigile	n	vigil	W7
	vigor	n	vigor	W7
	wacchen	vb	to watch	W7
	waite	n	watchman; wait, public musician	W7
	waiten	vb	to wait	W7
	waken	vb	to wake	W7
	wakien	vb	to wake	W7
	waknen	vb	to waken	W7
	waughten	vb	to guard, convoy	W7
	wicche	n	witch	W7
	wicke	adj	wicked	W7
	wicked	adj	wicked	W7
English:	awake, awoke, awaken/awoken	vb.str	to cease sleeping, arouse from sleep	W7
	awake	adj	alert, aroused from sleep	W7
	awaken	vb	to awake	W7
	bewitch	vb	to charm, affect by witchcraft	W7
	bivouac	n	encampment under little/no shelter	AHD/W7
	ravigote	n	vinegar sauce seasoned with herbs/capers/onion	AHD
	reveille	n	bugle call signaling day's first military formation	AHD/W7
	surveillance	n	spying, close observation of group/person	AHD
	surveillant	adj	exercising surveillance	AHD
	vedette	n	mounted sentinel stationed before pickets	AHD/W7
	vegetable	n	plant cultivated for edible part(s)	AHD
	velocity	n	speed, quickness of motion	AHD/W7
	vigil	n	watch kept on eve of religious feast	AHD/W7
	vigilant	adj	alertly watchful	AHD/W7
	vigilante	n	member of vigilance committee	AHD/W7
	vigor	n	active force/strength of mind/body	AHD/W7
	waft	vb	to go/move lightly by impulse of wind/waves	AHD/W7
	wait	n	English public musician employed to play/sing for procession/entertainment	AHD/W7
	wait	vb	to await, remain in expectation	AHD/W7
	wake, woke, woken	vb.str	to be/remain awake	AHD/W7
	waken	vb	to awake	AHD/W7
	watch	vb	to keep vigil (as devotional exercise)	AHD/W7
	Watcher	prop.n	Moria lake creature in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	Watchwood	prop.n	vigilant forest in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	Wicca	prop.n	pagan nature religion	AHD
	Wiccan	prop.adj	re: Wicca, witchcraft	AHD
	wicked	adj	evil, morally bad	AHD/W7
	witch	n	wizard, sorceress	AHD/W7
	Witch-lord	prop.n	Nazgûl Lord in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
W-Germanic
Dutch:	wekken	n	to wake someone up	LRC
	wekker	n	waker, alarm clock	TLL
Old Saxon:	wakōn	vb	to wake, watch, be awake	ASD
Old Low German:	wakōn	vb	to wake, watch, be awake	ASD
Middle Low German:	wachten	vb	to watch, guard	W7
Low German:	biwake	n	bivouac, lit. at guard	W7
	wake	n	guard	W7
Old High German:	arwachen	vb	to awake	CDC
	wahhōn	vb	to wake, watch, be awake	ASD
	wahta	vb	to watch	W7
	wīh	adj	holy	W7
Middle High German:	erwachen	vb	to awake	CDC
	wicken	vb	to bewitch	W7
German:	bewachen	vb	to guard	LRC
	erwachen	vb	to awake	CDC
	wachen	vb	to be awake	LRC
	Wecker	n	waker, alarm clock	TLL
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	vaka	vb	to watch, be/stay awake	LRC
	vakna	vb	to awaken	W7
	vekja, vakti	vb	to rouse, waken	LRC
Danish:	vågne	vb	to wake up	LRC
Swedish:	vakna	vb.intrans	to wake up, be woken	LRC
	väcka	vb.trans	to wake someone up	LRC
Italic
Latin:	vegeo, vegēre	vb	to rouse, be active	W7
	veho, vehere	vb	to carry	W7
	velocitas, velocitatis	n.fem	velocity, rapidity	W7
	velox, velocis	adj	quick, swift, rapid	W7
	vigeo, vigēre	vb	to be vigorous	W7
	vigil	adj	awake, watchful	W7
	vigilans, vigilantis	adj/vb.ptc	vigilant, staying awake	W7
	vigilia	n.fem	watch, vigil, wakefulness	W7
	vigilō, vigilāre	vb	to keep watch, stay awake	W7
	vigor	n.masc	vigor, strength	W7
Vulgar Latin:	exvigilō, exvigilāre	vb	to keep watch, stay awake	W7
Late Latin:	vigilia	n.fem	vigil	W7
Spanish:	vela	n.fem	watch, vigil	W7
	velar	vb	to keep watch	W7
	vigilante	adj	vigilant	W7
Old French:	vigile	n.fem	watch, vigil	W7
Middle French:	velocité	n.fem	velocity, rapidity	W7
	vigilant	adj	vigilant, awake	W7
	vigor	n.fem	vigor, strength	W7
French:	bivouac	n.masc	bivouac	W7
	éveiller	vb	to awaken	W7
	réveiller	vb	to awaken	W7
	vedette	n.fem	star of play	W7
Italian:	vedetta	n.fem	watch, sentinel	W7
	veletta	n.fem	woman's veil; look-out	W7/CID

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
intrans	=	intransitive
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
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)
CID	=	Cassell's Italian Dictionary (1958)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

Nearby etyma: previous | next