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: kakka- 'to cack, defecate (nursery word)'
Semantic Field(s): to Void Excrement; Dung, Excrement
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celtic | ||||
| Old Irish: | cacc | n | cack | W2I |
| Middle Irish: | caccaid | vb | to cack | EIE |
| Welsh: | cach | vb | to cack | EIE |
| English | ||||
| Old English: | cac | n.masc | cack | ASD |
| cac-hūs | n.neut | privy, latrine | ASD | |
| Middle English: | cakken, cakken | vb | to cack | AHD/W2I |
| English: | caca | n | dung, feces, ordure, excrement | LRC |
| caca | n.sl | heroin | LRC | |
| cack | n | caca; muck | W2I | |
| cack | vb.dial | to shit, defecate | W2I | |
| cac(o)- | pfx | bad | AHD | |
| cacophony | n | dissonance, jarring discordant sound | AHD | |
| poppycock | n | nonsense, empty talk | AHD/W7 | |
| West Germanic | ||||
| Middle Dutch: | kacken | vb | to cack | AHD |
| Dutch: | kak | n.masc | cack | ASD/W7 |
| kakken | vb | to cack | AHD | |
| pappekak | n | poppycock, lit. soft cack | W7 | |
| German: | Kacke | n.fem | caca | LRC |
| North Germanic | ||||
| Old Norse: | *kūka | vb | to cack | AHD |
| Danish: | kag | n.masc/fem | cack | ASD |
| Italic | ||||
| Latin: | cacō, cacāre, cacāvī, cacātus | vb | to cack, pass, void | ELD |
| Spanish: | caca | adj/n | dirty; caca | LRC |
| Slavic | ||||
| Russian: | kákatĭ | vb | to cack | EIE |
| Hellenic | ||||
| Greek: | κακκάω | vb | to cack | LS |
| κάκκη | n.fem | caca | LS | |
| κακός | adj | bad, poor, evil, caco- | LS | |
| Armenian | ||||
| Armenian: | k'akor | n | caca | EIE |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| adj | = | adjective |
| dial | = | dialectal |
| fem | = | feminine (gender) |
| masc | = | masculine (gender) |
| n | = | noun |
| neut | = | neuter (gender) |
| pfx | = | prefix |
| sl | = | slang |
| 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) |
| EIE | = | J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams, eds. Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (1997) |
| ELD | = | Charlton T. Lewis: An Elementary Latin Dictionary (1999) |
| LRC | = | Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| LS | = | Liddell and Scott: Greek-English Lexicon, 7th-9th ed's (1882-1940), rev. |
| W2I | = | Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd ed. (1959) |
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |
