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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. leip- 'to smear (with fat), stick'

Semantic Field: to Rub

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	belīfan	vb	to remain, be left over	W7
	endleofan	nbr.card	eleven (11)	W7
	lǣfan, lǣfde, lǣfed	vb.wk.I	to leave	LRC
	lāf	n.fem	relic, remnant, survivor, what is left	ASD
	lēon	vb	to lend	W7
	libban, lifde, lifd	vb.wk.III	to live	LRC
	līf	n.neut	life	LRC
	Līf-frea͡	prop.n.wk.masc	lit. Life-lord	LRC
	līflīc	adj	lively	W7
Middle English:	alyve	adj	alive	MEV
	delayen	vb	to delay	W7
	enleven	nbr.card	eleven (11)	W7
	leven	vb	to leave	W7
	lif	n	life	W7
	lively	adj	lively	W7
	liven	vb	to live	W7
English:	aliphatic	adj	re: fat	AHD/W7
	alive	adj	living	LRC
	delay	vb	to postpone, put off	AHD/W7
	eleven	nbr.card	11, lit. one left	AHD/W7
	Fréaláf	prop.n	10th Rohan king in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	Guthláf	prop.n	Theoden's flag-bearer in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	leave, left	vb.wk	to depart, bequeath	AHD/W7
	life	n	quality distinguishing vital/functional being from dead body/inert matter	AHD/W7
	live	vb	to be alive, have plant/animal life	AHD/W7
	lively	adj	living	AHD/W7
	relay	n	supply arranged for successive relief	AHD/W7
	relay	vb	to provide fresh relays	AHD
	synalepha	n	blending of successive vowels into one syllable	AHD
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	andlova/elleva	nbr.card	eleven (11)	ASD
	lāva	n	relic, remnant, survivor, what is left	ASD
	lēva	vb	to leave	ASD
	libba	vb	to live	ASD
	līf	n	life	ASD
Frisian:	alue/alve	nbr.card	eleven (11)	ASD
Dutch:	blijven	vb	to stay, remain	ASD
Old Saxon:	ellevan	nbr.card	eleven (11)	ASD
	farleƀian	vb	to remain	ASD
	lēƀa	n	relic, remnant, survivor, what is left	ASD
	lēƀōn	vb	to be left	ASD
	libbian	vb	to live	ASD
	līf	n	life	ASD
Old High German:	einlif	nbr.card	eleven (11)	W7
	lebēn	vb	to live	W7
	leiba	n	relic, remnant, survivor, what is left	ASD
	leibēn	vb	to remain	ASD
	leibjan	vb	to leave	ASD
	līp	n	life	ASD
	pilīpan	vb	to stay, remain	ASD
	verleiben	vb	to leave	W7
Middle High German:	beliben	vb	to stay, remain	ASD
	einlef/einlif	nbr.card	eleven (11)	ASD
German:	bleiben	vb	to stay, remain	ASD
	e(i)lf	nbr.card	eleven (11)	ASD
	Leben	n.neut	life	LRC
	leben	vb	to live	LRC
	Leib	n.masc	relic, remnant, survivor, what is left	LRC
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	leifa, leifað	vb	to leave	LRC
	lifa, lifað	vb	to live	LRC
	líf	n.neut	life	LRC
Icelandic:	ellifu	nbr.card	eleven (11)	ASD
	leif	n	relic, remnant, survivor, what is left	ASD
	leifa	vb	to leave	ASD
	lifa	vb	to live	ASD
	líf	n	life, body, person	ASD
Danish:	blive	vb	to stay, remain	ASD
	elleve	nbr.card	eleven (11)	ASD
Swedish:	blifva, bli	vb	to stay, remain	ASD
	elfva	nbr.card	eleven (11)	ASD
E-Germanic
Gothic:	aflifnan	vb.wk.IV	to stay, remain	LRC
	ainlif	nbr.card	eleven (11)	ASD
	bi-laibjan	vb	to remain	ASD
	laiba	n	remnant	ASD
	liban	vb	to live	ASD
Italic
Latin:	caelebs	adj	unmarried	W7
	laxo, laxāre	vb	to loosen, slacken	W7
Old French:	delaier	vb	to postpone	W7
	laier	vb	to leave	W7
	laissier	vb	to leave, let go	W7
Hellenic
Homeric Greek:	ἄλειφαρ, ἄλειφατος	n.neut	oil, fat, ointment	LRC
	ἀλείφω	vb	to smear, anoint (with oil)	LRC
	λίπα	adv	richly, with oil	LRC
	λιπαρός	adj	sleek, shining (with oil)	LRC
Greek:	lipos	n.neut	fat	W7

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
I	=	class 1
III	=	class 3
IV	=	class 4
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
card	=	cardinal
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
nbr	=	number
neut	=	neuter (gender)
prop	=	proper
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)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
MEV	=	J.R.R. Tolkien: A Middle English Vocabulary (1922)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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