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: bhren-   'to bulge, stick out; edge, brink'

Semantic Field(s): Edge

 

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language Reflex(es) PoS/Gram. Gloss Source(s)
English  
Old English: brant, bront adj high, deep, steep, difficult ASD/IEW
Middle English: brent adj steep MEV
brink n brink IEW
English: brink n edge/border (of steep place) IEW/W7
West Germanic  
Middle Dutch: brinc n brink, grass field/border IEW
Dutch: brink n brink, grass field/border IEW
Middle Low German: brink n brink, edge of field IEW
North Germanic  
Old Norse: brekka n brink, slope W7
Old Icelandic: brattr adj high, steep IEW
brekka n brink, steep hill IEW
Icelandic: brattr adj steep ASD
Old Danish: brink, brank adj steep, upright IEW
Danish: brat adj steep ASD
Swedish: brant adj precipitous ASD

 

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

Abbrev. Meaning
adj=adjective
n=noun

Key to information Source codes (always with 'LRC' as editor):

Code Citation
ASD=Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller: An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (1898)
IEW=Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
MEV=J.R.R. Tolkien: A Middle English Vocabulary (1922)
W7=Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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