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. mē-, mō-   'big, important'

Semantic Field(s): Big, Large, Great

 

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language Reflex(es) PoS/Gram. Gloss Source(s)
Celtic  
Old Irish: mōr adj large W7
English  
Old English: mā, mǣ adj/adv more ASD/W7
mǣest adj.sup most W7
māra adj.comp more W7
Middle English: more adj.comp more W7
most adj.sup most W7
English: more adj.comp greater quantity of AHD/W7
most adj.sup majority of AHD/W7
West Germanic  
Old Frisian: mā adv/n more ASD
Dutch: meer adj.comp more TLL
meest adj.sup most TLL
Old Saxon: mēr adv/n more ASD
Old High German: meist adj.sup most W7
mēr adj.comp/adv more ASD/W7
German: mehr adj.comp more LRC
meist adj.sup most TLL
North Germanic  
Old Norse: mæra, mærað vb to praise LRC
mærr adj famous LRC
Icelandic: meir adv more ASD
Danish: mere adj.comp more TLL
mest adj.sup most TLL
Swedish: mera adj.comp more TLL
mest adj.sup most TLL
East Germanic  
Gothic: mais adv more ASD

 

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

Abbrev. Meaning
adj=adjective
adv=adverb(ial)
comp=comparative
n=noun
sup=superlative
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)
LRC=Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
TLL=Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7=Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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