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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: upér, upéri 'over, above'

Semantic Field: High

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Old Irish:	for	adv/prep	up, over	W7
English
Old English:	ofer/ofor	adv/prep	over	W7/ASD
Middle English:	iper-	pfx	hyper-	W7
	over	adv/prep	over	W7
	somete	n	summit	W7
	soverain	adj/n	sovereign	W7
	summe	n	sum	W7
	superior	adj	superior	W7
	supernal	adj	supernal	W7
	sur-	pfx	sur-	W7
English:	hyper-	pfx	high, beyond, super-	AHD/W7
	hyperbaton	n	figure of speech deviating from normal word order	AHD
	hypergolic	adj	re: self-igniting rocket propellant	AHD
	hyperkinesia	n	pathologically increased muscular movement	AHD
	hyperpnea	n	abnormally deep/rapid breathing	AHD
	orlop	n	lowest deck of ship	AHD
	over	adv/prep	across barrier/intervening space	AHD/W7
	Overhill	prop.n	Shire village in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings	LRC
	sopranino	n	musical instrument higher in pitch than soprano	AHD
	soprano	n	highest voice (part)	AHD/W7
	soubrette	n	coquettish maid/frivolous young woman (comedy)	AHD/W7
	sovereign	adj	reigning over, possessed of supreme power	AHD/W7
	sovereign	n	one reigning, possessing supreme power	AHD/W7
	sum	n	specified/indefinite amount (of money)	AHD/W7
	summit	n	top, apex	AHD/W7
	super-	pfx	over, above, greater in degree/quality/quantity	AHD/W7
	superable	adj	surmountable, able to be overcome/conquered	AHD/W7
	superb	adj	noble, majestic	AHD/W7
	supererogate	vb	to do more than required by need/duty/obligation	AHD/W7
	superfetate	vb	to conceive again while pregnant	AHD/CDC
	superior	adj	upper, better, situated higher up	AHD/W7
	supernal	adj	heavenly, being/coming from on high	AHD/W7
	supra-	pfx	super-	AHD/W7
	supreme	adj	highest in rank/authority	AHD/W7
	sur-	pfx	over, super-	AHD/W7
	surveillance	n	spying, close observation of group/person	AHD
	surveillant	adj	exercising surveillance	AHD
British English:	supremo	n	one highest in command/authority	AHD
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	over	adv/prep	over	ASD
Dutch:	boven	prep	above, over	TLL
	over	prep	over, above	TLL
Old Saxon:	oƀar	adv/prep	over	ASD
Old High German:	ubar/ubir	adv/prep	over, above, beyond	W7
German:	über	prep	over, above, about	LRC
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	yfir	adv/prep	over, above, beyond	LRC
Icelandic:	ofr-	adv/prep	over	ASD
Danish:	over	prep	above, over	TLL
Swedish:	över	prep	above, over	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	ufar	adv/prep	over, above, beyond	LRC
	ufarō	prep	over, above, upon	LRC
Italic
Oscan:	supruis	adv/prep	over, above	W7
Umbrian:	super	adv/prep	over, above	W7
Latin:	hyper-	pfx	hyper-	W7
	insuper	adv	above, on top	LRC
	summa	n.fem	sum, highest point	W7
	summus, summa, summum	adj.sup	highest	W7
	super-	pfx	super-	W7
	super	adv/prep	over, above	W7
	superabilis	adj	possible to beat	W7
	superbus	adj	proud, excellent	W7
	superferō, superferre	vb	to carry over, raise high	W7
	superior	adj.comp	better	W7
	supernus	adj	of above	W7
	supero, superare	vb	to surmount	W7
	superus, supera, superum	adj.comp	upper, higher, re: gods	LRC
	supra-	pfx	supra-, beyond, earlier	W7
	supra	prep	above, beyond, earlier	W7
	supremus	adj.sup	highest	W7
Vulgar Latin:	superanus	adj	of above	W7
Portuguese:	sôbre	prep	over, about, concerning	TLL
Old French:	somete	n.masc	summit	W7
	soverain	adj/n.masc	sovereign	W7
	sum	n.fem	top	W7
	summe	n.fem	summit	W7
	sur-	pfx	sur-	W7
Middle French:	somete	n.masc	summit	W7
	supérieur	adj.comp	superior	W7
	supernal	adj	of above	W7
French:	soubrette	n.fem	maid, soubrette	W7
Provençal:	soubra	vb	to surmount, exceed	W7
	soubret	adj	coy	W7
	soubreto	n.fem	soubrette	W7
Italian:	sobre	prep	over, about, concerning	TLL
	sopra	prep	on, upon, above	W7
	soprano	n.masc	soprano	W7
	sovra	prep	on, upon, above	W7
Hellenic
Greek:	ὑπέρ	prep/adv	for, over, above	LRC
	ὑπέρᾱ	n	upper rope	GED
	ὕπερος	n	pestle	GED
Armenian
Classical Armenian:	veray	prep	on, over	LRC

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

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
adv	=	adverb(ial)
comp	=	comparative
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
pfx	=	prefix
prep	=	preposition
prop	=	proper
sup	=	superlative
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)
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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