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: 1. su̯er-, also ser-?   'to speak, swear, answer'

Semantic Field(s): to Speak, Talk

 

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language Reflex(es) PoS/Gram. Gloss Source(s)
English  
Old English: andswaru n.fem answer, response LRC
swerian, swōr, swōron, sworen vb.str to swear ASD/W7
Middle English: answer n answer W7
sweren vb to swear W7
English: answer n response to question AHD/W7
answer vb to respond to question LRC
swear, swore, sworn vb.str to take/utter (oath) solemnly AHD/W7
West Germanic  
Old Frisian: swara, swer(i)a vb to swear, make oath ASD
Old Saxon: swerian vb to swear, make oath ASD
Old High German: swer(i)en vb to swear ASD/W7
German: schwören vb to swear LRC
Schwur n.masc oath, vow LRC
North Germanic  
Old Norse: andsvar n answer W7
svara, svarað vb to answer LRC
Icelandic: sverja vb to swear, make oath ASD
East Germanic  
Gothic: swaran vb to swear, make oath ASD
Italic  
Latin: sermo, sermonis n.masc language LRC
Slavic  
Russian: svara n altercation W7

 

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

Abbrev. Meaning
fem=feminine (gender)
masc=masculine (gender)
n=noun
str=strong (inflection)
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)
LRC=Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
W7=Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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