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. nāu- : nəu- : nū- 'death; corpse'
Semantic Field(s): to Die; Dead; Death, Corpse, Body
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | ||||
| Old English: | nē(o)d, nī(e)d | n.fem | need, distress, necessity; (name for) N-rune | ASD/W7 |
| Middle English: | ned | n | need | W7 |
| English: | Nár | prop.n | dwarf in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings | LRC |
| Narvi | prop.n | dwarf in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings | LRC | |
| narwhal | n | arctic cetacean | AHD/W7 | |
| need | n | obligation, necessary duty | AHD/W7 | |
| nudge | vb.trans | to touch/push gently | AHD/W7 | |
| nudnik | n | boring pest | AHD | |
| West Germanic | ||||
| Old Frisian: | nēd | n | need, necessity | ASD |
| Old Saxon: | nōd | n | need, necessity | ASD |
| Old High German: | nōt | n | need, distress | W7 |
| German: | Narwal | n.masc | narwhal | LRC |
| Not | n.fem | need, emergency | TLL | |
| Yiddish: | nudnik | n | boring pest | LRC |
| North Germanic | ||||
| Runic: | *naudiz | n | need, necessity; (name for) N-rune | LRC |
| Old Norse: | Narfi | prop.n | Narfi (Voluspa dwarf) | ICE |
| nauð(r) | n.fem | harm, distress, poverty | LRC | |
| náhvalr | n | narwhal, lit. corpse-whale | W7 | |
| Nár | prop.n.masc | Nar (Voluspa dwarf) | TPE | |
| nár | n.masc | corpse, body, cadaver, dead man | ICE/IEW | |
| Icelandic: | nauð | n | need, necessity | ASD |
| Norwegian: | narhval | n | narwhal | W7 |
| Danish: | narhval | n | narwhal | W7 |
| Swedish: | narval | n | narwhal | W7 |
| East Germanic | ||||
| Gothic: | nauþs | n | need, necessity | ASD |
| Slavic | ||||
| Polish: | nuda | n | boredom | AHD |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| fem | = | feminine (gender) |
| masc | = | masculine (gender) |
| n | = | noun |
| prop | = | proper |
| trans | = | transitive |
| 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) |
| ICE | = | Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson: An Icelandic-English Dictionary (1874) |
| IEW | = | Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959) |
| LRC | = | Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| TLL | = | Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944) |
| TPE | = | Lee M. Hollander: The Poetic Edda (1962) |
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |
