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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. nĕ, nē, nei (negative particle: no, etc.)

Semantic Fields: to Deny; to Refuse, Forbid

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	nā/nō	adj/adv/conj	no; not (at all); nor	ASD
	nā-hwæðer/nā-wðer/nā-ðor	adv/conj	neither...nor	ASD
	nā-læs	adv	not at all, lit. no less	LRC
	nān	adj/pron	no, none, lit. not one	W7/ASD
	nā-þing	n	nothing	W7
	nā-wiht/nā-(w)ht/nā-uht	pron	naught, lit. no whit	W7/ASD
	ne	adv	not	LRC
	nefne/næfne/nemne	conj	except, unless, if not	GED/ASD
	nō-(wi)ht	pron	nought, lit. no whit	W7/ASD
	un-	priv.pfx	un-	W7/ASD
Middle English:	annullen	vb	to annul	W7
	denyen	vb	to deny	W7
	in-	priv.pfx	in-	W7
	naught/nought	pron	naught/nought	W7
	no	adv	no	W7
	non-	priv.pfx	non-	W7
	none	pron	none	W7
	nonsuit	n	nonsuit	W7
	nor	conj	nor	W7
	not	adv/pron	not; nought	W7
	nother	pron/adj	neither	W7
	nothing	pron	nothing	W7
	un-	priv.pfx	un-	W7
English:	abnegate	vb	to surrender, relinquish	AHD/W7
	ahimsa	n	doctrine of not harming any living thing (Hinduism and Buddhism)	AHD/W7
	a(n)-	priv.pfx	not	AHD/W7
	annihilate	vb.trans	to nullify, destroy force/substance of	AHD/W7
	annul	vb.trans	to obliterate, reduce to nothing	AHD/W7
	deny	vb.trans	to declare untrue	AHD/W7
	in-	priv.pfx	not	AHD/W7
	naught/nought	pron	nothing, not aught	AHD/W7
	naughty	adj.arch	wicked, vicious in moral character	AHD/W7
	ne-	pfx	not	TLL
	nefarious	adj	heinous, impious, extremely wicked	AHD/CDC
	negate	vb.trans	to deny truth/existence of	AHD/W7
	negligee	n	woman's long flowing nightgown	AHD/W7
	negotiate	vb	to confer with another re: settlement	AHD/W7
	nihilism	n	idea that traditional values/beliefs are unfounded and existence is useless/senseless	AHD/W7
	nihility	n	nothingness, nonexistence	AHD
	nil	n	zero, nothing	AHD/W7
	nimiety	n	excess, redundancy	AHD/W7
	no	adj/adv/interj	not any; not; negative	AHD/W7
	non-	priv.pfx	not	AHD/W7
	none	pron	not any, lit. not one	AHD/W7
	nonjuror	n	one who refuses oath-taking	AHD
	nonplus	n	state of confusion/perplexity/bewilderment	AHD
	nonplus	vb	to bewilder, be/put at loss	AHD
	nonsuit	n	judgment against plaintiff for failure/inability to prosecute/establish case	AHD/W7
	nor	conj	(also) not	AHD/W7
	not	adv	negative: without, absence/reverse of	AHD
	nothing	pron	no thing, not any thing	AHD/W7
	null	adj	invalid, having no legal/binding force	AHD/W7
	nullipara	n	female that has borne no offspring	AHD
	renegade	n	deserter from faith/cause/allegiance	AHD/W7
	renege	vb	to deny, renounce	AHD/W7
	un-	priv.pfx	not	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	nā-wet	pron	naught, lit. no whit	ASD
	ne	adv	not	ASD
Dutch:	noch	conj	neither, nor	TLL
Old Saxon:	ne/ni	adv	not	ASD
	nēn	adj/pron	no, none	ASD
	neō-wiht	pron	naught, lit. no whit	ASD
Old High German:	ne/ni	adv	not	W7/ASD
	nein	adj	not one	ASD
	neō-wiht	pron	naught, lit. no whit	ASD
	un-	priv.pfx	un-	W7
German:	nein	adv/interj	no	LRC
	Nihilismus	n.masc	nihilism	W7
	noch	conj	nor	TLL
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	né	adv/conj	not; nor	LRC
Icelandic:	neinn	adj/pron	no, none, lit. not one	ASD
E-Germanic
Gothic:	ni	adv	not	LRC
Italic
Old Latin:	ne-	priv.pfx	not	W7
	nesei	conj	unless, lit. not if	AHD
	nihilum	n.neut	nothing	W7
	noenum	adv	not	W7
Latin:	abnegō, abnegāre	vb	to refuse, abnegate	AHD/ELD
	dēnegō, dēnegāre	vb	to deny, reject	W7/ELD
	nē	adv/conj	no, not; lest, that not	LRC
	nec-/neg-	priv.pfx	no, not	W7
	neglego, neglegere	vb	to neglect	W7
	negō, negāre, negāvī, negātus	vb	to deny	W7
	negotior, negotiāri, negotiātus	vb.dep	to carry on business	W7
	negotium	n.neut	business	W7
	neque	adv/conj	neither ... nor	LRC
	neve	conj	and not, nor	LRC
	ni	conj	if not, unless	LRC
	nihil/nil	n.neut	nothing	W7
	nisi	conj	unless, lit. not if	AHD
	non	adv	not	LRC
	nonnullus, nonnulla, nonnullum	adj	some, lit. not none	LRC
	nullus, nulla, nullum	adj/pron	no, not one; none, not any	LRC
Late Latin:	annihilo, annihilāre, annihilāvī, annihilātus	vb	to reduce to nothing	W7
	annullō, annullāre	vb	to annul, cancel	W7
	nimietas	n.fem	being too much	W7
Medieval Latin:	renegō, renegāre, renegāvī, renegātus	vb	to renege, deny again	W7
Portuguese:	negar	vb	to deny, negate	TLL
	nem	conj	neither, nor	TLL
Spanish:	negar	vb	to deny, negate	TLL
	ni	conj	neither, nor	TLL
	renegado	n.masc	renegade	W7
Old French:	annuller	vb	to annul	AHD
	denier	vb	to deny	W7
	non	interj	no	W7
Anglo-French:	nounsuyte	n.fem	nonsuit	W7
Middle French:	in-	priv.pfx	in-	W7
	non-	priv.pfx	non-	W7
	nul	adj	not anyone	W7
French:	annuler	vb	to annul, cancel	W7
	négligé	n.masc	casual clothes worn inside the house	W7
	négliger	vb	to neglect	W7
	ni	conj	neither, nor	TLL
	nier	vb	to deny, negate	TLL
Italian:	nè	conj	neither, nor	TLL
	negare	vb	to deny, negate	TLL
Baltic
Lithuanian:	ne	priv.pcl	not	LRC
	neĩ	conj	neither, nor	LRC
	niẽkas	pron	no one, nobody, nothing	LRC
Latvian:	ne	priv.pcl	not	LRC
	neviena	pron	nobody, no one, not a single	LRC
Slavic
Czech:	neboh	adj	poor, unfortunate, lit. not rich	AHD
Old Church Slavonic:	ne	priv.adv/pcl	not; nor	LRC
Hellenic
Greek:	a(n)-	priv.pfx	not	W7
	nē-	priv.pfx	not	W7
Indic
Sanskrit:	a(n)-	priv.pfx	not	W7
	ahimsā	n	noninjury, doctrine of refraining from harming living beings	W7

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
arch	=	archaic
conj	=	conjunction
dep	=	deponent
fem	=	feminine (gender)
interj	=	interjection
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
pcl	=	particle
pfx	=	prefix
priv	=	privative (i.e., negative)
pron	=	pronoun
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)
CDC	=	W.D. Whitney and B.E. Smith: The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (1889-1911)
ELD	=	Charlton T. Lewis: An Elementary Latin Dictionary (1999)
GED	=	Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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