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: tem(ə)-   'dark'

Semantic Field(s): Darkness, Shade, Shadow, Dark in Color

 

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language Reflex(es) PoS/Gram. Gloss Source(s)
Celtic  
Old Irish: temel n darkness RPN
English  
Middle English: temeryte n temerity W7
English: temerarious adj brash, marked by temerity AHD/W7
temerity n rashness, recklessness, foolhardy/unreasonable contempt for danger/opposition AHD/W7
Tenebrae prop.n celebration re: last 3 days of Christian Holy Week LRC
tenebrionid n darkling beetle AHD
West Germanic  
Old Saxon: þimm n dark RPN
Low German: dumper adj gloomy RPN
Old High German: demar n darkness W7
Middle High German: dunster n dark(ness) RPN
German: düster adj dark, gloomy; sad, dismal LRC
Italic  
Latin: temerarius adj fearless, adventurous W7
temere adv randomly W7
temeritas n.fem temerity W7
tenebrae n.fem.pl darkness RPN
tenebriō n one who avoids light AHD
tenebrōsus adj dark, gloomy CLD
Medieval Latin: Tenebrae prop.n.fem.pl Tenebrae, darkness W7
Baltic  
Lithuanian: tamsà n.fem darkness LRC
tamsùs, tamsì adj dark LRC
Latvian: tumsa n darkness RPN
Slavic  
Old Church Slavonic: tьma n darkness RPN
Iranian  
Avestan: təmah- n darkness RPN
Indic  
Sanskrit: támas- n gloom, darkness RPN
tamas n temerity W7
támisrā n dark night RPN

 

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

Abbrev. Meaning
adj=adjective
adv=adverb(ial)
fem=feminine (gender)
n=noun
pl=plural (number)
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)
CLD=Cassell's Latin Dictionary (1959, rev. 1968)
LRC=Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
RPN=Allan R. Bomhard: Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic (2002)
W7=Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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