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: dhelbh- 'to dig, delve, bury'
Semantic Field(s): to Dig, Delve, to Hide, Conceal
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | ||||
| Old English: | delfan | vb | to delve | RPN |
| Middle English: | delven | vb | to delve | W7 |
| English: | delf | n | excavation in/under earth | OED |
| delve | vb | to dig, burrow, excavate | AHD/W7 | |
| Dwarrowdelf | prop.n | a.k.a. Khazad-dum in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings | LRC | |
| West Germanic | ||||
| Old Frisian: | del(v)a | vb | to dig | ASD/RPN |
| Frisian: | dollen | vb | to delve | ASD |
| Dutch: | delven | vb | to delve | ASD |
| Old Saxon: | bi-delƀan | vb | to bury | ASD |
| Old High German: | bi-telban | vb | to bury | ASD |
| telban | vb | to dig | W7 | |
| Middle High German: | telben, tëlben | vb | to dig | ASD/RPN |
| German: | delben | vb | to delve | ASD |
| Slavic | ||||
| Slovenian: | dléto | n | chisel | RPN |
| Russian: | dolbat', dolbit' | vb | to chisel, hollow out | RPN |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| n | = | noun |
| prop | = | proper |
| 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) |
| LRC | = | Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| OED | = | James A.H. Murray et al: The Oxford English Dictionary (1933) |
| RPN | = | Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002) |
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |