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: orbho-   'weak, abandoned; slave, orphan'

Semantic Field(s): Weak, Infirm, Slave, Orphan

 

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language Reflex(es) PoS/Gram. Gloss Source(s)
English  
Old English: earfeðe, earfoþ n.neut hardship, suffering ASD
earfoð-hwīl n.fem lit. hardship-time LRC
(e)arm, ærm adj poor, wretched, pitiful, miserable ASD
earm-cearig adj miserable, lit. wretched-caring LRC
English: orphan n child deprived of parent(s) by death AHD/W7
robot n machine with human form/function but lacking sensitivity AHD/W7
West Germanic  
Old Frisian: arbe(i)d n.neut labor, hardship ASD
arm, erm adj poor ASD
Frisian: aerbeyde n labor, hardship ASD
earm adj poor ASD
Dutch: arbeid n.masc labor, hardship ASD
arbeiden vb to work TLL
arm adj poor ASD
Old Saxon: arbeit n.fem labor, hardship ASD
arbeithi, arbeidi, arvit n.neut labor, hardship ASD
arm adj poor ASD
Old High German: ar(a)beit n.fem trouble ASD/W7
ar(a)m adj poor ASD
erbi n inheritance W7
Middle High German: ar(e)beit n.fem labor, hardship ASD
arm adj poor ASD
German: Arbeit n.fem labor, hardship ASD
arbeiten vb to work TLL
arm adj poor ASD
Erbe n.masc beneficiary LRC
Erbe n.neut inheritance LRC
North Germanic  
Old Norse: arfr n inheritance LRC
Icelandic: armr adj poor ASD
erfiði, erviði n.neut toil, labor, distress ASD
Danish: arbeid(e) n.neut labor, hardship ASD
arbejde vb to work TLL
arm adj poor ASD
Swedish: arbeta vb to work TLL
arbete n.neut labor, hardship ASD
arm adj poor ASD
East Germanic  
Gothic: arbaiþs n.fem labor, hardship ASD
arms adj poor ASD
Italic  
Latin: orbus adj orphaned W7
Slavic  
Czech: robot n robot W7
robota n work, labor W7
Old Church Slavonic: rabotati, rabotajǫ, rabotaješi vb to serve, render service LRC
rabъ n.masc servant LRC
Hellenic  
Greek: orphanos n.masc orphan W7

 

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

Abbrev. Meaning
adj=adjective
fem=feminine (gender)
masc=masculine (gender)
n=noun
neut=neuter (gender)
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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