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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: (s)teig- 'to stick, prick; sharp'

Semantic Fields: to Bore; Sharp

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
English
Old English:	sticca	n.masc	stick, peg	W7
	stice	n.str.masc	stitch, prick; point/moment in time	GED
	sticel	adj	steep	GED
	sticel	n.masc	stickle; point, tip, goad	GED
	stician	vb.wk	to stick, prick	GED
	tiger	n	tiger	W7
Middle English:	instinct	n	instinct	W7
	steke	n	steak	W7
	stiche	n	stitch	W7
	stik	n	stick	W7
	stikken	vb	to stick	W7
	stykylbak	n	stickleback	W7
	thistel	n	thistle	W7
	tigre	n	tiger	W7
English:	astigmatism	n	lens defect causing blurred/imperfect image	AHD/W7
	distinguish	vb	to perceive as separate/different	AHD/W7
	etiquette	n	behavior observed in polite social/official life	AHD/W7
	extinguish	vb.trans	to quench, cause to cease burning	AHD/W7
	instigate	vb.trans	to provoke, goad/urge forward	AHD/W7
	instinct	n	natural impulse/aptitude/capacity	AHD/W7
	snickersnee	n	knife resembling sword	AHD
	steak	n	meat sliced from fleshy beef carcass, usu. broiled	AHD/W7
	stich	n	var. of stitch	GED/W7
	stick, stuck	vb.str	to stab, pierce with pointed tool/weapon	AHD/W7
	stick	n	woody part/piece of tree/shrub	AHD/W7
	stickleback	n	fish with sharp spines	GED/W7
	stigma	n	brand, scar left by hot iron	AHD/W7
	stitch	n	sudden sharp pain, esp. in side	AHD/W7
	stoup	n	beaker	GED
	thistle	n	prickly composite plant	AHD/W7
	Thistlewool	prop.n	Bree surname in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	ticket	n	document serving as permit/license/certificate	AHD/W7
	tiger	n	large carnivorous Asiatic cat	AHD/W7
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	steka	vb.str	to stick, stab, prick	GED
	steke	n.str.masc	point, moment; stab, prick	GED/ASD
Middle Dutch:	steken	vb	to stick	W7
Old Saxon:	stekan	vb.str	to stick, stab, pierce	GED
	stekul	adj	steep	GED
Middle Low German:	stekel	n	point, tip	GED
	stickel	n	point, tip	GED
	stōp	n	stoup	GED
Old High German:	distill	n	thistle	W7
	steccho	n	stick, peg	ASD
	stechal	adj	steep	GED
	stehhal	n.str.masc	stoup	GED
	stehhan	vb.str	to stick, stab, prick	GED
	stichil/stihhil	n.str.masc	point, tip	GED/ASD
	sticken	vb.wk	to prick	GED
	stih(h)	n.str.masc	point, moment; prick, stitch	GED/ASD
	stouf	n.str.masc	stoup	GED
Middle High German:	stecken	vb	to stick, remain fixed	ASD
German:	Distel	n.fem	thistle	LRC
	Stachel	n.masc	thorn, spike, prickle	LRC
	stechen	vb	to stick, prick, pierce	LRC
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	steik	n	steak	W7
	steikja	vb	to roast on stake	W7
	stik	n	stick, stake	W7
Old Icelandic:	staup	n	stoup	GED
	stikill	n	tip (esp. of drinking horn)	GED
Icelandic:	staup	n.neut	stoup, cup	ASD
	stika	n.fem	stick	ASD
	stikill	n	pointed end of horn	ASD
Danish:	stik	n	stab	ASD
Swedish:	stick	n	prick, stitch, stab	ASD
E-Germanic
Gothic:	stikls	n.masc	stoup, chalice	GED
	stiks	n.str.masc	point, moment in time	LRC
Italic
Latin:	dīstinguō, dīstinguere, dīstinxī, dīstinctum	vb	to divide, distinguish	LRC
	extinguo, extinguere	vb	to extinguish	W7
	instigatus	vb.ptc	incited	W7
	īnstīgō, īnstīgāre	vb	to incite, instigate	GED
	instinctus	adj	impelled	W7
	instinguō, instinguere	vb	to incite	W7
	stigma, stigmatis	n.fem	mark, brand	W7
	stinguō, stinguere	vb	to extinguish, to put out	W7
	tigris	n.masc/fem	tiger	W7
Old French:	tigre	n.masc	tiger	W7
Middle French:	distinguer	vb	to separate, distinguish	W7
	estiquet	n.masc	attachment	W7
	estiquier	vb	to attach	W7
French:	étiquette	n.fem	etiquette, tag	W7
Baltic
Old Prussian:	sticlo	n	glass	GED
Lithuanian:	stìklas	n	glass	GED
Latvian:	stikls	n	glass	GED
Slavic
Old Church Slavonic:	stьklo	n	glass	GED
Hellenic
Greek:	στίγμα	n.neut	mark, tattoo	LRC
	στιγμή	n.fem	spot, point	LRC
	stizein	vb	to tattoo	W7
	τίγρις	n.fem	tiger	LRC
Iranian
Avestan:	tig(h)ra-	adj	pointed	GED
Indic
Sanskrit:	tigmá-	adj	pointed	GED
	téjate	vb	to be sharp	GED

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
prop	=	proper
ptc	=	participle
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)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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