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: bhā̆d- 'good, better'
Semantic Field(s): Good
Indo-European Reflexes:
Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | ||||
Old English: | bētan | vb | to boot | CDC |
bet(e)ra | adj.comp | better | CDC/W7 | |
bet(e)re | adv.comp | better | CDC | |
bet(e)st | adj.sup | best | CDC/W7 | |
bet(ō)st | adv.sup | best | CDC | |
bōt | n.fem | boot; help, offering | ASD/W7 | |
Middle English: | best | adv.sup | best | CDC |
beste | adj.sup | best | CDC | |
bet(t)er, betre | adv.comp | better | CDC | |
bettre, bet(t)ere | adj.comp | better | CDC/W7 | |
boote, bot(e) | n | boot, profit | CDC | |
bot(e), boot | n | boot, cure, salvation | MEV/W7 | |
bōten, beten | vb | to boot | CDC | |
English: | batten | vb | to grow fat | AHD/W7 |
best | adj/adv.sup | excelling all others | AHD/W7 | |
better | adj/adv.comp | more than half | AHD/W7 | |
boot | n | redress, remedy, compensation; deliverance | ASD/W7 | |
boot | vb | to help, avail, profit | W7 | |
West Germanic | ||||
Old Frisian: | beste | adj.sup | best | CDC |
bet(e)re | adj.comp | better | CDC | |
bōte | n | boot, profit, advantage; repair, reparation | CDC | |
bote | n.fem | boot, assistance | ASD | |
Dutch: | baat | n | boot, gain, profit, advantage | CDC |
baten | vb | to boot | CDC | |
best | adj.sup | best | CDC | |
beter | adj.comp | better | CDC | |
boete | n.fem | boot, assistance | ASD | |
Old Saxon: | betara, betera | adj.comp | better | CDC |
betsto | adj.sup | best | CDC | |
bōta | n.fem | boot, assistance | ASD | |
Middle Low German: | bate | n | gain, profit, advantage | CDC |
baten | vb | to boot, help | CDC | |
Low German: | bate | n | gain, profit, advantage | CDC |
baten | vb | to boot, help | CDC | |
bote | n | boot, profit, advantage; repair, reparation | CDC | |
Old High German: | bezziro | adj.comp | better | CDC |
bezzisto | adj.sup | best | CDC | |
bōza | n.fem | boot, assistance | ASD | |
buoza | n | boot, profit, advantage; repair, reparation | CDC | |
Middle High German: | bezzer | adj.comp | better | CDC |
bezzist, best | adj.sup | best | CDC | |
buoz(e) | n | boot, assistance | ASD | |
German: | besser | adj/adv.comp | better | LRC |
best | adj.sup | best | CDC | |
Busse | n.fem | boot, profit, advantage; repair, reparation | CDC | |
Busze | n.fem | boot, assistance | ASD | |
North Germanic | ||||
Old Norse: | batna | vb | to improve | W7 |
betr | adv.comp | better, more | LRC | |
betri | adj.comp | better | LRC | |
beztr | adj.sup | best | LRC | |
bót | n.fem | boot, atonement | LRC | |
Icelandic: | bati | n | advantage, improvement | CDC |
betri | adj.comp | better | CDC | |
beztr, baztr | adj.sup | best | CDC | |
bōt | n.fem | boot, assistance | ASD | |
Danish: | bedre | adj.comp | better | CDC |
bedst | adj.sup | best | CDC | |
bod | n | boot, assistance | ASD | |
Swedish: | bot | n.masc | boot, assistance | ASD |
bäst | adj.sup | best | CDC | |
bättre | adj.comp | better | CDC | |
East Germanic | ||||
Gothic: | *batan | vb | to boot, be useful | CDC |
batists | adj.sup | best | ASD | |
batiza | adj.comp | better | ASD | |
bota, bōta | n.str.fem | boot, advantage | ASD | |
ga-batnan | vb | to boot, be bettered | CDC | |
Indic | ||||
Sanskrit: | bhadra | adj | fortunate | W7 |
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 |
str | = | strong (inflection) |
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) |
LRC | = | Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin |
MEV | = | J.R.R. Tolkien: A Middle English Vocabulary (1922) |
W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |