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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 and fonts spanning the Unicode 3 character set relevant to Indo-European languages. Versions of this page rendered in alternate character sets are available via links (see Unicode 2 and ISO-8859-1) in the left margin.

Pokorny Etymon: 1. bhā̆u- : bhū̆- 'to hit, beat'

Semantic Field: to Hit, Strike, Beat

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	bēatan, bēot, bēoton, bēaten	vb.str.VII	to beat, pound, strike	LRC
	bīetel/bīt(e)l/bȳt(e)l/bētel	n.masc/neut	beetle, hammer	RPN/ASD/CDC
	bȳtla	n.masc	builder, hammerer	ASD
	bȳtlian	vb.wk	to build, construct	ASD
	*hol-bȳtla	n.masc	hole-builder	LRC
Middle English:	abutten	adv	partly	W7
	batyldore	n	bat used in washing clothes	W7
	beten	vb	to beat	W7
	betylle/betel	n	beetle	W7/CDC
	bitel/bittill/bytylle	n	beetle	W7/CDC
	bitel-browed	adj	having overhanging brows	W7
	boton	n	button	W7
	butres	n	buttress	W7
	butte	n	flatfish	W7
	butten	vb	to butt	AHD
	buttok	n	buttock	W7
	halybutte	n.sg.pl	halibut	W7
	rebuten	vb	to rebut	W7
	turbot	n	turbot	W7
English:	abut	vb	to touch along border	AHD/W7
	baste	vb.trans	to thrash, beat soundly	AHD/W7
	beat, beat, beaten	vb.str.freq	to strike repeatedly	AHD/W7
	beetle	n	mallet, heavy wooden ramming/battering tool	AHD/W7
	bouton	n	bud-like swelling, button-shaped object	AHD
	butt	n	blow/push with head/horns	AHD
	butt	vb	to hit/push with head/horns	AHD
	buttock	n	either rounded half of lower part of back	AHD/W7
	button	n	small fastening knob/disk	AHD/W7
	buttress	n	stabilizing wood/masonry structure	AHD/W7
	clafouti(s)	n	French baked-fruit dessert	AHD
	confute	vb.trans	to win over by conclusive argument	AHD/W7
	footle	vb	to fool, trifle, loiter, waste time	AHD/W7
	gentlehobbit	n	noble/gentle hobbit in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	halibut	n	marine food fish (largest flatfish)	AHD/W7
	hobbit	n	halfling in Tolkien: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	Holbytla	prop.n	a.k.a. hobbit in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	rebut	vb	to repel, beat back	AHD/W7
	refute	vb.trans	to overthrow by argument	AHD/W7
	sackbut	n	medieval trombone	AHD/W7
	turbot	n	large brownish European flatfish	AHD/W7
Scots English:	bittle/bittill	n	beetle	CDC
W-Germanic
Middle Low German:	but	n	flounder	W7
Low German:	betel/bötel	n	beetle	CDC
Old High German:	bōz(z)an/pōzan	vb	to beat	RPN/ASD
Middle High German:	bōzel	n	beetle	CDC
	bōzen	vb	to beat	CDC
German:	boszen	vb	to beat	ASD
N-Germanic
Old Icelandic:	bauta	vb	to beat	RPN
	beysta	vb	to baste, thresh	RPN
Icelandic:	bauta	vb	to beat	CDC
	bey(r)sta	vb	to baste, drub	CDC
Danish:	böste	vb	to baste	CDC
Swedish:	basa	vb	to baste, whip, strike	CDC
	bösta	vb	to baste, drub	CDC
Italic
Latin:	confuto, confutare	vb	to check, repress	W7
	fūstis	n	stick, staff, club	RPN
	-futare	vb	to beat	W7
	futuo, futuere, futui, futūtum	vb	to have intercourse	AHD
	refuto, refutare	vb	to refute	W7
Old French:	aboter	vb	to border on	W7
	abuter	vb	to come to an end	W7
	boterez	n.masc	projecting rock/architectural structure	W7
	boton	n.masc	button	W7
	bo(u)ter	vb	to butt, strike, expulse, push out	W7
	but	n.masc	end, aim	W7
	reboter	vb	to rebut	W7
	saqueboute	n.fem	sackbut	W7
	tourbot	n.masc	turbot	W7
Middle French:	boton	n.masc	button	W7
	bouterez	n.masc	masonry structure	W7
	saqueboute	n.fem	hooked lance	W7
French:	bouton	n.masc	bud, button, bouton	LRC

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
VII	=	class 7
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
fem	=	feminine (gender)
freq	=	frequentative (aspect)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
pl	=	plural (number)
prop	=	proper
sg	=	singular (number)
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)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
RPN	=	Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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