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: 4. er-, er-t-, er-u̯- 'earth'
Semantic Field(s): Earth, Land
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | ||||
| Old English: | eard | n.masc | earth; home, native country | ASD |
| eorþ(e) | n.fem | earth | ASD | |
| middan-eard | n.masc | middle dwelling, lit. middle-earth | ASD | |
| Middle English: | erthe | n | earth | W7 |
| English: | aardvark | n | nocturnal ant-eating African mammal | AHD/W7 |
| aardwolf | n | carrion-eating SE African mammal | AHD/W7 | |
| earth | n | our world; soil, land, ground | AHD/W7 | |
| earthen | adj | made of earth-soil | W7 | |
| Middle-earth | prop.n | world setting in Tolkien: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings | LRC | |
| West Germanic | ||||
| Middle Dutch: | aerde | n | earth | AHD |
| Dutch: | aard | n.masc | nature, temper | ASD |
| aarde | n | earth | TLL | |
| Afrikaans: | aard | n | earth | W7 |
| aardvark | n | aardvark | W7 | |
| aardwolf | n | aardwolf | W7 | |
| Old Saxon: | ard | n.masc | home, dwelling | ASD |
| Old High German: | art | n.fem | plow | ASD |
| erda | n.fem | earth | W7 | |
| Middle High German: | art | n | nature | ASD |
| German: | Art | n.fem | kind, nature | ASD |
| Erde | n.fem | earth | LRC | |
| irden | adj | earthen | TLL | |
| North Germanic | ||||
| Old Norse: | jǫrð | n.fem | earth | LRC |
| Danish: | jord | n | earth | TLL |
| Swedish: | jord | n | earth | TLL |
| East Germanic | ||||
| Gothic: | aírþa | n.str.fem | earth | LRC |
| Hellenic | ||||
| Greek: | eraze | adv | to the ground | W7 |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| adj | = | adjective |
| adv | = | adverb(ial) |
| fem | = | feminine (gender) |
| masc | = | masculine (gender) |
| n | = | noun |
| prop | = | proper |
| str | = | strong (inflection) |
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 |
| TLL | = | Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944) |
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |
