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: (s)nē-, and (s)nēi- 'to spin, twist threads together'
Semantic Field(s): to Spin
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) | 
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celtic | ||||
| Old Irish: | snāth | n.masc | thread | GED | 
| snī | vb | to spin, twist | GED | |
| Old Breton: | notenn | n | thread | GED | 
| Cornish: | nethe | vb | to spin, twist | GED | 
| Welsh: | nyddu | vb | to spin, twist | GED | 
| English | ||||
| Old English: | nǣdl | n.fem | needle | GED | 
| snōd | n.fem | snood | W7 | |
| Middle English: | nedle | n | needle | W7 | 
| snood | n | snood | W7 | |
| English: | axoneme | n | cytoskeletal structure in cilium | AHD | 
| chromonema | n | coiled filamentous chromatid core | AHD/W7 | |
| Náli | prop.n | dwarf in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings | LRC | |
| needle | n | small slender bone/steel tool used for sewing | AHD/W7 | |
| protonema | n | primary filamentous thalloid gametophyte stage | AHD/W7 | |
| snood | n | band/fillet for woman's hair | AHD/W7 | |
| treponema | n | spirochete parasite of warm-blooded animals | AHD/W7 | |
| West Germanic | ||||
| Old Frisian: | nēdle | n | needle | GED | 
| nēlde | n | needle | GED | |
| Dutch: | naald | n | needle | TLL | 
| Old Saxon: | nāðla | n | needle | GED | 
| Old High German: | nādala | n.fem | needle | GED | 
| *nāen | vb.wk | to sew | GED | |
| nājan | vb | to sew | W7 | |
| nālda | n.fem | needle | GED | |
| nāwen | vb.wk | to sew | GED | |
| German: | Nadel | n.fem | needle | LRC | 
| nähen | vb | to sew | GED | |
| North Germanic | ||||
| Old Norse: | Náli | prop.n | Nali (Voluspa dwarf) | LRC | 
| Old Icelandic: | nāl | n | needle | GED | 
| Icelandic: | nál | n | needle | ASD | 
| Danish: | naal | n | needle | TLL | 
| Swedish: | nål | n | needle | TLL | 
| East Germanic | ||||
| Gothic: | *neþla | n.fem | needle | GED | 
| Italic | ||||
| Latin: | nēmen | n.neut | web | GED | 
| neō, nēre | vb | to spin | GED | |
| New Latin: | chromonema | n.neut | chromonema | W7 | 
| protonema, protonematis | n.fem | protonema | W7 | |
| treponema | n.fem | treponema, (genus of) spirochete | W7 | |
| Baltic | ||||
| Lithuanian: | nýtis | n | loom reed | GED | 
| Hellenic | ||||
| Homeric Greek: | νέω | vb | to spin | GED | 
| νῆμα | n.neut | web, thread, yarn | GED | |
| Greek: | νήθω | vb | to spin | GED | 
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| fem | = | feminine (gender) | 
| masc | = | masculine (gender) | 
| n | = | noun | 
| neut | = | neuter (gender) | 
| prop | = | proper | 
| vb | = | verb | 
| wk | = | weak (inflection) | 
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) | 
| GED | = | Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986) | 
| LRC | = | Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin | 
| TLL | = | Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944) | 
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |