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: 3. sper- 'to turn, wind'
Semantic Field(s): to Turn, to Wind, Wrap
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | ||||
| English: | esparto | n | Spanish/Algerian grass | AHD/W7 |
| sparteine | n | liquid alkaloid extracted from common broom | AHD/W7 | |
| spiral | n | winding/helical curve | W7 | |
| spire | n | spiral | AHD/W7 | |
| West Germanic | ||||
| German: | Spirale | n.fem | spiral | LRC |
| Italic | ||||
| Latin: | spartum | n.neut | reed, broom, esparto | W7 |
| spira | n.fem | coil, spiral | W7 | |
| Medieval Latin: | spiralis | n | spiral | W7 |
| Spanish: | esparto | n.masc | reed | W7 |
| Baltic | ||||
| Lithuanian: | springti | vb | to choke while swallowing | LD/W7 |
| Hellenic | ||||
| Greek: | σπάρτον | n.neut | rope, cable | LS |
| σπεῖρα | n.fem | coil, spiral | LRC | |
| Late Greek: | σπαργᾶνόω | vb | to wrap in swaddling clothes | LRC |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| 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) |
| LD | = | Bronius Piesarskas and Bronius Svecevicius: Lithuanian Dictionary (1994) |
| LRC | = | Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| LS | = | Liddell and Scott: Greek-English Lexicon, 7th-9th ed's (1882-1940), rev. |
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |
