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: 2. su̯er- 'to buzz, hiss'
Semantic Field(s): Sound (n)
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | ||||
| Old English: | swearm, swearrn | n.masc | swarm, crowd | W7 |
| Middle English: | swarm | n | swarm | W7 |
| English: | absurd | adj | ridiculously unsound/incongruous/unreasonable | AHD/W7 |
| hyrax | n | shrewmouse, small ungulate mammal | AHD/W7 | |
| sordino | n | mute | AHD/W7 | |
| soricine | adj | resembling shrew | AHD/W7 | |
| sourdine | n | musical instrument with muted tone | AHD/W7 | |
| surd | adj | irrational | AHD/W7 | |
| susurration | n | murmur, soft rustling/whispering sound | AHD | |
| swarm | n | great number (e.g. of bees) | AHD/W7 | |
| swirl | vb | to eddy, move with twisting/whirling motion | AHD | |
| West Germanic | ||||
| Dutch: | zwerm | n.masc | swarm, crowd | ASD |
| Old High German: | swar(a)m | n.masc | swarm | ASD/W7 |
| German: | Schwarm | n.masc | swarm | LRC |
| North Germanic | ||||
| Icelandic: | svarmr | n.masc | swarm, tumult | ASD |
| Danish: | sværm | n.masc | swarm, rioting | ASD |
| Swedish: | swärm | n.masc | swarm | ASD |
| Italic | ||||
| Latin: | absurdus, absurda, absurdum | adj | absurd, silly | W7 |
| sorex, soricis | n.masc | mouse | W7 | |
| soricinus | adj | re: mice | W7 | |
| surdus, surda, surdum | adj | surd, deaf, silent, stupid | W7 | |
| susurrus | n.masc | hum | W7 | |
| Middle French: | absurde | adj | absurd | W7 |
| French: | sourdine | n.fem | sordino | W7 |
| Italian: | sordina | n.fem | sordino | W7 |
| sordino | n.masc | sordino | W7 | |
| sordo | adj | deaf, silent, dull-sounding | W7 | |
| Hellenic | ||||
| Greek: | hyrax | n.masc | hyrax | W7 |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| adj | = | adjective |
| fem | = | feminine (gender) |
| masc | = | masculine (gender) |
| n | = | noun |
| 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) |
