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: 2. g̑her- 'to gash, slit, scrape, scratch'
Semantic Field(s): to Cut, to Rub
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | ||||
| Middle English: | caracter | n | character | W7 |
| garsen | vb | to gash | W7 | |
| English: | characin | n | small brightly-colored tropical fish | AHD/W7 |
| character | n | graphic mark/device on object indicating origin/ownership/relationship | AHD/W7 | |
| gash | vb | to make long deep cut | AHD/W7 | |
| Italic | ||||
| Latin: | character | n.masc | character, distinctive quality | W7 |
| Vulgar Latin: | charisso, charissāre | vb | to engrave | W7 |
| Old North French: | garser | vb | to gash, scratch, engrave | W7 |
| Middle French: | caractère | n.masc | personality, type | W7 |
| Baltic | ||||
| Lithuanian: | žeriù, žer̃ti | vb | to rake, scratch out | RPN |
| Albanian | ||||
| Albanian: | karakter | n.masc | character, distinctive quality | LRC |
| Hellenic | ||||
| Greek: | charaktēr | n.masc | personality, distinctive mark, figure on coinage | W7 |
| charax | n.masc/fem | pointed stake; fish | W7 | |
| χαράσσω | vb | to cut, engrave, scratch | RPN | |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| fem | = | feminine (gender) |
| masc | = | masculine (gender) |
| n | = | noun |
| 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) |
| LRC | = | Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| RPN | = | Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002) |
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |
