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) |
