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: bhrēi-, bhrī̆- 'to fray, pierce, cut with sharp tool'
Semantic Field(s): to Cut
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celtic | ||||
| Old Irish: | brissim | vb.1.sg | I break | W7 |
| Welsh: | briw | n | wound | RPN |
| English | ||||
| Old English: | brȳne | n | brine, salt liquor | ASD/W7 |
| Middle English: | brine | n | brine | W7 |
| English: | affricate | n | vocal stop with immediately following release | AHD/W7 |
| brine | n | saltwater, saline solution | IEW | |
| brisance | n | crushing/shattering effect of explosive | AHD/W7 | |
| debris | n | ruins, remains of something destroyed/broken down | AHD/W7 | |
| dentifrice | n | liquid/paste/powder for cleaning teeth | AHD/W7 | |
| fray | vb | to fret, wear (cloth edge) by rubbing | AHD/W7 | |
| friable | adj | easily crumbled/pulverized | AHD/W7 | |
| fricative | adj | re: frictional passage of breath through narrowing in vocal tract | AHD/W7 | |
| friction | n | (resistance to) moving one thing in contact with another | AHD/W7 | |
| frottage | n | (producing effect via) rubbing | AHD | |
| West Germanic | ||||
| Middle Dutch: | brīne | n | brine | W7 |
| German: | Affrikata | n | affricate | W7 |
| North Germanic | ||||
| Old Norse: | brandr | n.masc | piece of firewood | LRC |
| Italic | ||||
| Latin: | affricō, affricāre, affricuī, affricātus | vb | to rub against | W7 |
| friabilis | adj | friable | W7 | |
| fricō, fricāre, fricuī, frictus | vb | to rub | W7 | |
| frictio, frictionis | n.fem | friction | W7 | |
| frio, friare | vb | to crumble | W7 | |
| Old French: | brisier | vb | to break | W7 |
| debrisier | vb | to break to pieces | W7 | |
| Middle French: | débris | n.masc | debris | W7 |
| debriser | vb | to break to pieces | W7 | |
| dentifrice | n.masc | toothpaste | W7 | |
| frayer, froyer | vb | to rub, expend | W7 | |
| friable | adj | friable, easily broken | W7 | |
| friction | n.fem | friction | W7 | |
| French: | brisant | vb.ptc | breaking | W7 |
| briser | vb | to break | W7 | |
| débris | n.masc | debris | W7 | |
| frotter | vb | to rub | AHD | |
| Baltic | ||||
| Lithuanian: | brė́žti | vb | to scratch, sketch | RPN |
| Slavic | ||||
| Russian Church Slavic: | briju, briti | vb | to shear, clip | RPN |
| Indic | ||||
| Sanskrit: | bhrīṇā́ti | vb | to hurt, injure | RPN |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | = | 1st person |
| adj | = | adjective |
| fem | = | feminine (gender) |
| masc | = | masculine (gender) |
| n | = | noun |
| ptc | = | participle |
| sg | = | singular (number) |
| 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) |
| IEW | = | Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959) |
| LRC | = | Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| RPN | = | Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002) |
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |