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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: k̑ent- 'to stab, stick'

Semantic Fields: to Press; Knife (tool)

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Old Irish:	cinteir	n	spur	RPN
Breton:	kentr	n	spur	RPN
Cornish:	kenter	n	spike	RPN
Welsh:	cethr	n	nail, tip	RPN
English
Middle English:	centre	n	center	W7
English:	amniocentesis	n	amniotic fluid extraction via centesis	AHD
	center	n	point equidistant from exterior points of circle/sphere/etc.	AHD/W7
	centesis	n	puncture/perforation of body cavity using hollow needle	LRC
	centrobaric	adj	re: center of gravity	AHD
	cestus	n	woman's belt	AHD/W7
	dicentra	n	fumitory family of herbs	AHD/W7
	eccentric	adj	not having same center	AHD/W7
British English:	centre	n	center	LRC
W-Germanic
Old High German:	hantag	adj	sharp, pointed	RPN
Italic
Latin:	centrum	n.neut	center of circle	W7
	cestus	n.masc	gauntlet for boxers	W7
	contus	n	punt pole; long spear/pike	RPN
Medieval Latin:	eccentricus	adj	eccentric	W7
New Latin:	Dicentra	n.fem	(genus name)	W7
Middle French:	centre	n.masc	center	W7
Baltic
Latvian:	sīts	n	hunting spear	W7
Hellenic
Greek:	ekkentros	adj	outside the center	W7
	κεντέω	vb	to prick, goad, sting	RPN
	κέντρον	n	sharp point, center of circle	RPN
	kestos	n.masc	girdle	W7
	kestos	vb.ptc	stitched	W7
	κοντός	n	pole	RPN

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
ptc	=	participle
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)
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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