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.

Pokorny Etymon: 2. sp(h)ei : sp(h)ī̆, and sp(h)ē : sp(h)ə-   'to pull, drag'

Semantic Field(s): to Draw, Pull

 

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language Reflex(es) PoS/Gram. Gloss Source(s)
English  
Old English: spann n.fem span IEW/W7
spannan, sponnan vb to span, bind CDC/IEW
Middle English: span(ne), sponne n span CDC/W7
spannen vb to span CDC
English: span n distance between ends of thumb/little finger on spread hand AHD/W7
span vb to reach, stretch, extend, connect LRC
spancel n tether, rope for hobbling animal AHD
spanner n wrench AHD/W7
West Germanic  
Middle Dutch: spannen vb to span, bind, hitch up W7
Old High German: spanna n span IEW/W7
spannan vb to span CDC
German: spannen vb to span W7
Spanner n.masc press; spanner W7
North Germanic  
Old Norse: spenna, spennat vb to span, clasp LRC
Icelandic: spenna vb to span, clasp ASD
spönn n.fem span ASD
Danish: spænde vb to span, strain CDC
Swedish: spänna vb to span, strain CDC
Hellenic  
Greek: σπάω vb to draw, pull, drag IEW

 

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

Abbrev. Meaning
fem=feminine (gender)
masc=masculine (gender)
n=noun
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)
IEW=Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
LRC=Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
W7=Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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