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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.

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. eu-, euə- : u̯ā-, u̯ə- 'to lack, want; empty, vacant'

Semantic Field: Empty

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	wan	adj	lacking, wanting, deficient	GED
	wana	n.masc	wane, lack, deficiency	W7
	wanian	vb.wk	to wane, diminish	GED
Middle English:	avoiden/avoyden	vb	to avoid	W7/CDC
	devoid	adj	devoid	W7
	devoiden	vb	to vacate	W7
	vacacioun	n	vacation	W7
	vacant	adj	vacant	W7
	vain	adj	vain	W7
	vanisshen	vb	to vanish	W7
	vanite	n	vanity	W7
	vaunten	vb	to vaunt, brag	W7
	voide	adj	void	W7
	voiden	vb	to void	W7
	wane	n	wane	W7
	wanen	vb	to wane	W7
	wanten	vb	to want	W7
	wast(e)	adj	waste	W7
	wasten	vb	to waste	W7
English:	avoid	vb.trans	to void, expel	AHD/W7
	devastate	vb.trans	to lay waste	AHD/W7
	devoid	adj	destitute, not having/using	AHD/W7
	evacuate	vb	to make empty	AHD/W7
	evanesce	vb.intrans	to dissipate like vapor	AHD/W7
	vacant	adj	free, not occupied	AHD/W7
	vacate	vb	to annul, make legally void	AHD/W7
	vacation	n	intermission, (time of) respite	AHD/W7
	vacuity	n	empty space	AHD/W7
	vacuous	adj	empty	W7
	vacuum	n	emptiness of space	AHD/W7
	vain	adj	idle, worthless, having no value	AHD/W7
	vanish	vb.intrans	to disappear, pass quickly from sight	AHD/W7
	vanity	n	something vain	AHD/W7
	vast	adj	enormous, very great in size/extent	W7
	vaunt	vb	to brag, make vain display of one's worth/attainments	AHD/W7
	void	adj	containing nothing	AHD/W7
	void	vb.trans	to clear, empty, make vacant	AHD/W7
	wane	n	decrease, dwindling	AHD/W7
	wane	vb.intrans	to dwindle, decrease in size/extent	AHD/W7
	want	vb	to lack, fail to possess	AHD/W7
	waste	adj	desolate, being wild/uninhabited	AHD/W7
	waste	n	desert, barren/sparsely settled region	AHD/W7
	waste	vb	to devastate, lay waste	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	wan	adj	lacking	GED
	wania	vb.trans	to lessen, curtail, diminish	ASD
	won	adj	absent, wanting	ASD
	wonia	vb.wk	to wane, diminish	GED
Dutch:	wan	n	leak	GED
Old Saxon:	wan	adj	absent, lacking, wanting	GED
Middle Low German:	wone	n	hole in ice	GED
Old High German:	wan/wesan	adj	lacking, wanting	GED/ASD
	wanōn	vb.wk	to wane, lessen, diminish	GED
	wuosti	adj	waste	W7
Middle High German:	wune	n	hole in ice	GED
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	vanta	vb	to wane, lack, want	W7
Old Icelandic:	vana	vb.wk	to wane, diminish	GED
	vanr	adj	lacking	GED
Icelandic:	vana	vb.trans	to spoil, destroy, diminish	ASD
	vanr	adj	absent, wanting	ASD
E-Germanic
Gothic:	wan	n.neut	wane, lack	GED
	*wanan	vb.wk	to wane, diminish	GED
	*wans	adj	lacking, deficient, at a disadvantage	GED
Italic
Latin:	devasto, devastare, devastavi, devastatus	vb	to devastate	W7
	evacuo, evacuare, evacuavi, evacuatus	vb	to evacuate	W7
	evanesco, evanescere	vb	to vanish, evanesce	W7
	ēvoco, ēvocare, ēvocāvī, ēvocatum	vb	to summon, call forth	LRC
	prōvocō, provocāre, provocāvī, provocātum	vb	to challenge	LRC
	vacans, vacantis	vb.ptc	vacant	W7
	vacatio, vacationis	n.fem	freedom, exemption	W7
	vacō, vacāre, vacāvī, vacātus	vb	to vacate, be vacant	W7
	vacuitas	n.fem	emptiness, vacuity	W7
	vacuum	n.neut	vacuum	W7
	vacuus	adj	vacuous	W7
	vanesco, vanescere	vb	to vanish	W7
	vanitas, vanitatis	n.fem	vanity	W7
	vānus	adj	vain; void, vacant, vacuous	GED
	vasto, vastāre	vb	to desolate, lay waste	W7
	vastus	adj	vast; waste, desolate	W7
Vulgar Latin:	exvanire	vb	to evanesce	W7
	vocitus	adj/vb.ptc	void, vacuous	W7
Late Latin:	vanito, vanitāre	vb	to be vain	W7
Old French:	desvuidier	vb	to be devoid	W7
	esvuidier/esveudier	vb	to empty out	W7/CDC
	vacant	adj	vacant, empty	W7
	vain	adj	vain, empty, without effect	W7
	vanité	n.fem	vanity	W7
	voide	adj	void	W7
	vuidier	vb	to void	W7
Old North French:	wast	adj	waste, desolate	W7
	waster	vb	to lay waste	W7
Anglo-French:	avoider	vb	to avoid	CDC
Middle French:	desvuidier	vb	to be devoid	W7
	evanir, evaniss-	vb	to vanish	W7
	vacation	n.fem	freedom, vacuity	W7
	vanter	vb	to boast	W7
	vuidier	vb	to void	W7
Baltic
Lithuanian:	vañskariai	n	unhatched eggs	GED
Latvian:	vanskare	n	unhatched eggs	GED
Hellenic
Greek:	εὖνις	adj	lacking	GED
Armenian
Armenian:	unayn	adj	empty	GED
Iranian
Avestan:	ūna-	adj	lacking, defective	GED
Indic
Sanskrit:	ūnás	adj	lacking, defective	GED

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)
ptc	=	participle
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)
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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