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)

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