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. lei-   'to dissipate, disappear; thin, weak'

Semantic Field(s): to Depart, Go Away, Thin (in Dimension), Weak, Infirm

 

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language Reflex(es) PoS/Gram. Gloss Source(s)
English  
Old English: lǣs adj/adv less, partly W7
lǣs n.fem letting (of blood) W7
lǣssa adj.comp less W7
lǣst adj.sup least W7
Middle English: leest adj.sup least W7
less adj.comp less W7
English: least adj.sup lowest in amount/importance AHD/W7
less adj.comp fewer AHD/W7
West Germanic  
Old Frisian: lēs adj less W7
lessa adj.comp less ASD
Old Saxon: les adv/conj less; lest ASD
North Germanic  
Old Norse: lítill adj little, short LRC
lítt adv little LRC
n.neut harm, destruction, misfortune LRC
East Germanic  
Gothic: leitils adj little LRC
Crimean Gothic: lista adj too little; least: smallest CGo
Baltic  
Latvian: liels adj big LRC
Hellenic  
Greek: limos n.masc hunger W7

 

Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:

Abbrev. Meaning
adj=adjective
adv=adverb(ial)
comp=comparative
conj=conjunction
fem=feminine (gender)
masc=masculine (gender)
n=noun
neut=neuter (gender)
sup=superlative

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)
CGo=MacDonald Stearns, Jr: Crimean Gothic (1978)
LRC=Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
W7=Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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