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: sēmi-   'half, semi-'

Semantic Field(s): Half

 

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language Reflex(es) PoS/Gram. Gloss Source(s)
English  
Old English: sām- pfx semi- RPN
sām-wīs adj dull, simple, foolish, lit. half-wise ASD
Middle English: hemi- pfx hemi- W7
samblind adj sand-blind W7
sand-blind adj sand-blind W7
semi- pfx semi- W7
English: hemi- pfx half AHD/W7
Samwise prop.n simple hobbit in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings LRC
sand-blind adj purblind, half-blind, having poor eyesight AHD/W7
semi- pfx half AHD/W7
sesqui- pfx one and a half AHD/W7
sesquipedal adj sesquipedalian AHD
sesquipedalian adj one and a half feet tall/long AHD
West Germanic  
Old Saxon: sām- pfx semi- RPN
Old High German: sāmi- pfx semi- RPN
German: semi- pfx semi- LRC
Italic  
Latin: hēmi- pfx hemi- W7
sēm(i)- pfx semi- RPN
sēmis n half (of anything) RPN
Hellenic  
Homeric Greek: ἡμι- pfx hemi- LRC
ἥμισυ n.neut half LRC
ἥμισυς adj half LRC
Greek: ἡμῖ- pfx hemi- RPN
ἥμῖσυς adj/n half RPN
Indic  
Sanskrit: sāmí adv halfway, incompletely RPN

 

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

Abbrev. Meaning
adj=adjective
adv=adverb(ial)
n=noun
neut=neuter (gender)
pfx=prefix
prop=proper

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
RPN=Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002)
W7=Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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