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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. mū̆- (onomatopoeic: to moo, hum, etc.)

Semantic Fields: Sound (n); Various Cries

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	mǣw/meāu/mēu	n.masc	mew	IEW/ASD
Middle English:	mew	n	mew	W7
	mistik	adj	mystic	W7
	mommen	vb	to mum	W7
	muet	adj	mute	W7
	muten	vb	to mute	W7
	mysterie	n	mystery	W7
English:	mew	n	gull (sea bird)	W7
	miosis/myosis	n	constriction of (eye's) pupil	AHD
	moo	vb	to low, make cow-like noise	W7
	mop(e)	n.obs	mug; fool	IEW/W7
	mope	vb.arch	to gape, stare; act dazed/stupid	IEW/W7
	mum	n	strong ale/beer	AHD/W7
	mum	vb.trans	to act/play in mask/disguise	AHD/W7
	mumble	vb	to mutter, murmur, speak softly	IEW
	mump	vb	to mumble	IEW
	mute	adj	dumb, unable to speak	AHD/W7
	mute	vb.intrans	to void	AHD/W7
	mutter	vb	to mumble, murmur	IEW
	mystery	n	religious truth known by revelation alone	AHD/W7
	mystic	adj	mystical, having spiritual meaning/reality neither sensible nor obvious	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Middle Dutch:	mēwe	n	mew	ODE
Dutch:	meeuw	n	mew	ODE
Old Saxon:	mēu	n	mew	ODE
Middle Low German:	mēwe	n	mew	ODE
Old High German:	māwen	vb	to cry out	W7
	mēh	n	mew	ODE
German:	Möwe	n	mew	ASD
	Mumme	n	mum	W7
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	Már	prop.n.masc	Mar, Corpse (a dwarf)	LRC
	mási	n	mew	SAO
	má(va)r	n.masc	mew	W7/ICE
Icelandic:	már	n	mew	ASD
Danish:	maage	n	mew	ASD
Swedish:	mås	n	mew	SAO
Italic
Latin:	mutus	adj	mute	W7
	mysterium	n.neut	secret ceremony re: deity	W7
	mysticus	adj	re: mystery	W7
Middle French:	meutir	vb	to silence	W7
	momer	vb	to go masked	W7
	muet	n.masc	mute	W7
Hellenic
Greek:	μυστήριον	n.neut	mystery	LRC
	mystērion	n.neut	secret ceremony re: deity	W7
	mystikos	adj	re: mystery	W7
	mystos	adj	keeping silent	W7
	mytēs	adj	mute	W7
	myw	vb	to be closed	W7

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
arch	=	archaic
intrans	=	intransitive
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
obs	=	obsolete
prop	=	proper
trans	=	transitive
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)
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)
SAO	=	Swedish Academy: Svenska Akademiens Ordbok (2011)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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