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) |