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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: g̑embh-, g̑m̥bh-, g̑ombhos 'to bite; tooth'

Semantic Fields: to Bite; Tooth

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	ācumba	n	oakum	W7
	camb	n.masc/fem	comb	RPN/ASD
	cemban/cæmban	vb	to comb	RPN/ASD
Middle English:	camb/comb	n	comb	W7
	chime	n	chime	W7
	gemme	n	gem	W7
	okum	n	oakum	W7
English:	cam	n	non-circular roller imparting motion to piece sliding against its edge	AHD/W7
	chime	n	apparatus for ringing bell(s)	AHD/W7
	comb	n	toothed instrument used to clean/adjust/confine hair	AHD/W7
	gem	n	jewel	AHD/W7
	gemma	n	bud, asexual reproductive plant body	AHD/W7
	gemmate	adj	re: gemma	AHD/W7
	gemmule	n	small bud	AHD/W7
	gomphosis	n	immovable articulation where hard part (e.g. tooth) is received into bone cavity (e.g. jaw)	AHD/W7
	kame	n	short hill/ridge of sand/gravel deposited by glacial meltwater	AHD/W7
	oakum	n	loose hemp/jute fiber from old ropes	AHD/W7
	unkempt	adj	not neat, lit. uncombed	ODE
Scots English:	kame	n	comb	W7
W-Germanic
Frisian:	kaem	n	comb	ASD
Dutch:	kam	n.masc	comb	ASD
Old Saxon:	camb	n.masc	comb	ASD
Old High German:	kamb/champ	n	comb	RPN
	kamp(o)	n.masc	comb	ASD
Middle High German:	kambe	n.fem	comb	ASD
	kamp	n.masc	comb	ASD
German:	Kamm	n.masc	comb	W7/ASD
N-Germanic
Old Icelandic:	kambr	n	comb	RPN
Icelandic:	kambr	n.masc	comb	ASD
Danish:	kam	n.masc/fem	comb	ASD
Swedish:	kam	n.masc	comb	ASD
Italic
Latin:	cymbalum	n.neut	cymbal	W7
	gemma	n.fem	gem; gemma	W7
	gemmula	n.fem.dim	little gem	W7
New Latin:	gomphosis	n.fem	gomphosis	W7
Old French:	chimbe	n.masc	chime	W7
Middle French:	gemme	n.fem	gem, precious stone	W7
French:	came	n.fem	cam	W7
	gemmule	n.fem	gemmule, bud of plant embryo	W7/R1
Baltic
Lithuanian:	žam̃bas	n	pointed object	RPN
Latvian:	zùobs	n	tooth	RPN
Slavic
Polish:	ząb	n	tooth	RPN
Old Church Slavonic:	zǫbъ	n	tooth	RPN
Albanian
Albanian:	dhëmb	n	tooth	RPN
Hellenic
Greek:	γομφίος	n	grinder-tooth	RPN
	gomphos	n.masc	nail, bolt, joint, pin, articulation	W7
	gomphōsis	n.fem	a bolting together	W7
Indic
Sanskrit:	jámbha-ḥ	n.masc	tooth	RPN/ASD
	jámbhate/jábhate	vb	to chew up, crush	RPN
Tocharian
Tocharian B:	keme	n	tooth	RPN
Tocharian A:	kam	n	tooth	RPN

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
dim	=	diminutive
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
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
ODE	=	C.T. Onions: The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966)
R1	=	Josette Rey-Debove and Alain Rey, eds. Le Nouveau Petit Robert (1993)
RPN	=	Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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