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: 1. bhrē̆u-, bhrū̆-   'to break, cut, pierce'

Semantic Field(s): to Break, to Cut

 

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language Reflex(es) PoS/Gram. Gloss Source(s)
English  
Old English: brēotan, brēat, bruton, broten vb.str to break, bruise ASD/W7
brēoðan vb to waste away W7
bryt(t)a n.masc lord, prince; giver, bestower, distributor LRC
brytti(g)an, brittian, brytian vb to rule, give, divide, dispense ASD
Middle English: brethen vb to waste away, go to ruin W7
britil adj brittle W7
brothel n brothel W7
brothen vb.ptc ruined, wasted away W7
English: brittle adj easily broken/cracked/snapped AHD/W7
brothel n house of prostitution AHD/W7
Brytta prop.n 11th Rohan king a.k.a. Leofa in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings LRC
West Germanic  
Old High German: bretōn vb to break, bruise ASD
North Germanic  
Old Norse: braut n.fem road LRC
Old Icelandic: briōta vb to break IEW
Icelandic: brjōta vb to break, bruise ASD
brytja vb to chop, cut in pieces ASD
Danish: bryde vb to break, bruise ASD
Swedish: bryta vb to break, bruise ASD
Indic  
Sanskrit: bhrūna n embryo W7

 

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

Abbrev. Meaning
adj=adjective
fem=feminine (gender)
masc=masculine (gender)
n=noun
prop=proper
ptc=participle
str=strong (inflection)
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
W7=Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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