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: selp- 'salve, fat, butter'
Semantic Field(s): Butter
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | ||||
| Old English: | salf, sealf(e) | n.fem | salve | RPN |
| Middle English: | salfe, s(e)alve | n | salve | CDC |
| English: | quacksalver | n | quack, charlatan | AHD/W7 |
| salve | n | healing ointment | AHD/W7 | |
| West Germanic | ||||
| Dutch: | kwakzalver | n | quacksalver | W7 |
| zalf | n | salve | CDC | |
| Old Saxon: | salƀa, salbha | n | salve | CDC/RPN |
| Middle Low German: | salve | n | salve | CDC |
| Old High German: | salb(a) | n | salve | ASD/RPN |
| Middle High German: | salbe | n | salve | CDC |
| German: | Quacksalber | n.masc | quacksalver | LRC |
| Salbe | n.fem | salve | LRC | |
| North Germanic | ||||
| Danish: | salve | n | salve | CDC |
| Swedish: | salfva | n | salve | CDC |
| East Germanic | ||||
| Gothic: | salbōn | vb | to anoint | RPN |
| salbōns | n | salve | RPN | |
| Albanian | ||||
| Albanian: | gjalpë | n | oil, butter | RPN |
| Hellenic | ||||
| Greek: | ἔλπος | n | butter | RPN |
| ὄλπη | n.fem | (leather) oil flask | RPN | |
| ὄλπις | n | (leather) oil flask | RPN | |
| Indic | ||||
| Sanskrit: | sarpíṣ- | n | ghee, clarified butter | RPN |
| sṛprá-ḥ | adj | oily, slippery | RPN | |
| Tocharian | ||||
| Tocharian B: | ṣalype | n | grease, ointment | RPN |
| ṣalywe | n | grease, ointment | RPN | |
| Tocharian A: | ṣälyp | n | grease, ointment | RPN |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| adj | = | adjective |
| fem | = | feminine (gender) |
| masc | = | masculine (gender) |
| n | = | noun |
| 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) |
| CDC | = | W.D. Whitney and B.E. Smith: The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (1889-1911) |
| LRC | = | Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| RPN | = | Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002) |
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |
