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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: 3. k̑em- 'to wrap, cover, conceal'

Semantic Fields: to Wind, Wrap; to Cover; to Hide, Conceal

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	feðer-hama/feðer-homa	n.wk.masc	wings, plumage, feather-coat	ASD
	flǣsc-hama/flǣsc-homa	n.wk.masc	body, carcass, lit. flesh-coat	ASD
	grǣg-hama	adj/n.wk.masc	gray-coated (one, i.e. wolf)	ASD
	hama/homa	n.wk.masc	hame	ASD
	hamor	n	hammer	W7
	hemeþe	n	hame: shirt	GED
	he(o)fon/heofen/heofun	n.str.masc	heaven	ASD
	heofon-cund	adj	heavenly	GED
	heofon-rīce	n.neut	kingdom of heaven	LRC
	scand	n.masc/fem	disgrace, infamous man/woman	ODE
	sceamian	vb.wk	to shame, feel shame, be ashamed	ODE/ASD
	sc(e)amu	n.fem	shame, confusion; modesty, bashfulness	W7/ODE/ASD
Middle English:	chemise	n	shirt, chemise	W7
	hame	n	hame	OED
	hamer	n	hammer	W7
	heven	n	heaven	W7
	scant	adj	scant	W7
	shame	n	shame	W7
English:	chemise	n	woman's one-piece undergarment	W7
	Gimli	prop.n	dwarf in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	Greyhame	prop.n	epithet for Gandalf in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	Háma	prop.n	personal name in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	hame	n	covering: skin, rind, membrane; shirt, garment	OED
	hammer	n	handle with solid head used for pounding	AHD/W7
	heaven	n	firmament, dome-like expanse of sky over earth	AHD/W7
	scant	adj	chary, meager, not full/large/plentiful	W2I
	shame	n	disgrace, dishonor, painful emotion re: guilt	TLL/W7
	shame	vb.trans	to disgrace, bring shame to	W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	hama	n	hame	GED
	hemethe	n	hame: shirt	GED
	himel-rīk	n	kingdom of heaven	ASD
	himul/himel	n.str.masc	heaven	GED/ASD
	skame/skome	n	shame	ODE
Dutch:	hemd	n	hame: vest	TLL
	hemel	n.str.masc	heaven	GED
Old Saxon:	hamo	n	hame	GED
	heƀan	n.str.masc	heaven	GED
	heƀan-rīki	n	kingdom of heaven	ASD
	himil	n.str.masc	heaven	GED
	himil-rīki	n	kingdom of heaven	ASD
	skama	n	shame	ODE
Low German:	hǣwen	n.str.masc	heaven	GED
Old High German:	hamar	n	hammer	W7
	hamo	n	hame	GED
	hemidi	n.str.neut	hame: shirt	GED
	himel-chunni	n.str.neut	heavenly race	GED
	himil	n.str.masc	heaven	GED
	himil-rīchi	n	kingdom of heaven	ASD
	scama	n	shame	W7
	scanda	n	disgrace	ODE
	scant	adj	scant; ashamed	ODE
German:	Hammer	n.masc	hammer	LRC
	Hemd	n.neut	hame: shirt	LRC
	Himmel	n.masc	heaven	ASD
	Himmelreich	n.neut	kingdom of heaven	ASD
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	gimill/himill/himinn	n.masc	heaven	ICE/IEW
	Gimli	prop.n.dat	heavenly abode (Voluspa locale)	ICE
	hamr	n.masc	hame	ICE
	skǫmm	n.fem	shame	ODE
	ulfa-hamr	n.masc	wolf-hame	LRC
Old Icelandic:	hamast	vb.wk	to assume animal shape, rage (like a berserk)	GED
	hams	n.masc	hame	GED
	himinn	n.str.masc	heaven	GED
Icelandic:	hifinn/himinn	n	heaven	ASD
	himin-rīki	n	kingdom of heaven	ASD
Danish:	himmel	n	heaven	GED
	himme-rige	n	kingdom of heaven	ASD
Swedish:	himmel	n	heaven	GED
	skam	n	shame	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	af-hamon	vb.wk.II	to get undressed	GED
	ana-hamon	vb.wk.II	to get dressed	GED
	*and-hamon	vb.wk.II	to undress	GED
	ga-hamon	vb.wk.II	to get dressed	GED
	*himina-kunds	adj	heavenly	GED
	himins	n.str.masc	heaven	LRC
	skanda	n	disgrace	ODE
	ufar-hamon	vb.wk.II	to don, put on	GED
Italic
Late Latin:	camisia	n	shirt, chemise	W7
Portuguese:	camisa	n	shirt, chemise	TLL
Spanish:	camisa	n	shirt, chemise	TLL
Old French:	chemise	n	shirt, chemise	TLL
French:	chemise	n	shirt, chemise	TLL
Italian:	camicia	n	shirt, chemise	TLL
Hellenic
Greek:	akmē	n.fem	point	W7
Anatolian
Hittite:	kammara-	n	cloud, smoke, vapor	GED
Indic
Sanskrit:	śāmulyàm	n	bridal garment	GED

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
II	=	class 2
adj	=	adjective
dat	=	dative (case)
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
prop	=	proper
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)
GED	=	Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986)
ICE	=	Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson: An Icelandic-English Dictionary (1874)
IEW	=	Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
ODE	=	C.T. Onions: The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966)
OED	=	James A.H. Murray et al: The Oxford English Dictionary (1933)
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W2I	=	Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd ed. (1959)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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