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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: u̯(e)rād-, u̯_erəd-, u̯rəd- 'root, branch, twig'

Semantic Fields: Root; Branch

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	rædic/rǣdic	n.masc	radish	W7/ASD
	rōt	n.fem	root	W7
	wyrt	n.fem	wort	W7
Middle English:	licorice	n	licorice	W7
	radical	adj	radical	W7
	radish	n	radish	W7
	root	n	root	W7
	wort	n	wort	W7
English:	Blackroot	prop.n	vale in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	coleorhiza	n	sheath investing hypocotyl through which roots burst	AHD/W7
	deracinate	vb.trans	to uproot	AHD/W7
	eradicate	vb.trans	to pull up by roots	AHD/W7
	irradicable	adj	deep-rooted, impossible to eradicate	AHD/W7
	licorice	n	European leguminous plant	AHD/W7
	mangel-wurzel	n	large coarse beet (food for cattle)	AHD/W7
	Mugwort	prop.n	hobbit surname in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	mycorrhiza	n	symbiotic association of fungus with plant roots	AHD/W7
	radical	adj	re: root	AHD/W7
	radicle	n	lower part of axis of plant embryo/seedling	AHD/W7
	radish	n	pungent fleshy plant root	AHD/W7
	radix	n	base	AHD/W7
	ramose	adj	having/consisting of branches	AHD/W7
	ramus	n	branch, projecting part, elongated process	AHD/W7
	rhizome	n	elongated horizontal underground plant stem	AHD/W7
	root	n	underground part of seed-plant body	AHD/W7
	rutabaga	n	turnip	AHD/W7
	wort	n	plant, herb	AHD/W7
	wort	n	dilute sugar solution fermented to make beer	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Dutch:	radijs	n	radish	TLL
	wortel	n	root	TLL
Old Saxon:	wurt	n.fem	root, plant	ASD
Old High German:	rātih/retih	n	radish	ASD
	wurz	n.fem	wort: herb; grass, vegetables	ASD
Middle High German:	retich	n	radish	ASD
	würze	n	brewer's wort	W7
German:	Mangelwurzel	n.fem	mangel-wurzel	W7
	Mangoldwurzel	n.fem	mangel-wurzel, lit. beet root	W7
	Radieschen	n	radish	TLL
	Rettich	n	radish	ASD
	Würze	n.fem	wort, flavor, seasoning	LRC
	Wurzel	n.fem	root	W7
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	rót	n.fem	root	LRC
Icelandic:	urt	n.fem	wort: herb	ASD
Danish:	radise	n	radish	TLL
Swedish:	rot	n	root	W7
	rotabagge	n	rutabaga	W7
	rädisa	n	radish	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	waúrts	n.str.fem	root, plant	LRC
Italic
Latin:	eradicatus	vb.ptc	eradicated	W7
	eradico, eradicare	vb	to eradicate, remove roots	W7
	radicula	n.fem.dim	small root	W7
	radius, radii	n.masc	rod, beam	LRC
	radix, radicis	n.fem	root	W7
	ramosus	adj	having many branches	W7
	ramus	n.masc	branch	W7
Late Latin:	liquiritia	n.fem	licorice	W7
	radicalis	adj	re: root(s)	W7
	radicina	n.fem	little root	W7
Medieval Latin:	irradicabilis	adj	irradicable	W7
New Latin:	coleorhiza	n.fem	coleorhiza	W7
	mycorrhiza	n.fem	mycorrhiza	W7
	ramus	n.masc	branch	W7
	rhizoma	n.fem	rhizome	W7
Middle French:	desraciner	vb	to deracinate	W7
	racine	n.fem	root	W7
French:	déraciner	vb	to deracinate	W7
Hellenic
Homeric Greek:	ῥίζα	n.fem	root	LRC
	ῥιζόω	vb	to plant, cause to take root	LRC
Greek:	glykyrrhiza	n.fem	licorice, lit. sweet root	W7
	rhizōma	n.fem	mass of roots	W7

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
dim	=	diminutive
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
prop	=	proper
ptc	=	participle
str	=	strong (inflection)
trans	=	transitive
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)
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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