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: 4. u̯el-, u̯elə- 'wool, hair; grass, wold, forest'
Semantic Field(s): Wool, Hair, Grass, Woods, Forest
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celtic | ||||
| Welsh: | gwlan | n | wool | LRC |
| gwyllt | adj | wild, mad | W7 | |
| English | ||||
| Old English: | weald | adj | mighty, powerful | ASD |
| wilde | adj | wild, untamed | LRC | |
| wold | n.str.masc | wold: forest | OED | |
| wull | n.fem | wool | W7 | |
| West Saxon: | weald | n.masc | weald: forest | W7 |
| Anglian: | wald | n.masc | wold: forest | ODE |
| Middle English: | flaunneol | n | flannel, woolen cloth/garment | W7 |
| laner | n | lanner | W7 | |
| wald, wold | n | wold: forest | W7 | |
| welde | n | weld | W7 | |
| wilde | adj | wild | W7 | |
| wolle | n | wool | W7 | |
| English: | flannel | n | soft twilled wool/worsted napped fabric | AHD/W7 |
| lanate | adj | woolly, covered with fine hair/filaments | AHD/W7 | |
| lanner | n | falcon | AHD/W7 | |
| lanolin | n | wool grease | AHD/W7 | |
| lanugo | n | dense downy/cottony growth | AHD/W7 | |
| Thistlewool | prop.n | Bree surname in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings | LRC | |
| ulotrichous | adj | having crisp/woolly hair | AHD/W7 | |
| vellus | n | fine bodily hair preceding puberty | AHD | |
| vole | n | small rodent (related to lemmings) | AHD/W7 | |
| Walda | prop.n | 12th Rohan king in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings | LRC | |
| weald | n | wood, forest, woodland | AHD | |
| weld | n | European mignonette (flowery herb) | AHD/W7 | |
| wild | adj | untamed, undomesticated, living in natural state | AHD/W7 | |
| wildebeest | n | gnu: large African antelope with ox-like horns | AHD/W7 | |
| Wilderland | prop.n | wilderness area in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings | LRC | |
| wilderness | n | uncultivated uninhabited tract/region of land | AHD/W7 | |
| Wold | prop.n | Rohan plain in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings | LRC | |
| wold | n | wood, forest; upland plain | AHD/W7 | |
| wool | n | soft wavy/curly undercoat of (e.g.) sheep | AHD/W7 | |
| West Germanic | ||||
| Old Frisian: | wald | n.masc | wold: forest | ASD/ODE |
| wilde | adj | wild | ASD | |
| Dutch: | wol | n | wool | TLL |
| woud | n | wold: forest | ODE | |
| Afrikaans: | wildebees | n | wildebeest, lit. wild ox | W7 |
| Old Saxon: | ala-waldo, alo-waldo | adj | mighty, powerful | ASD |
| wald | n.masc | wold: forest | ASD/ODE | |
| Old Low German: | wildi | adj | wild | ASD |
| Middle Low German: | wolde | n | weld | W7 |
| Old High German: | al-walto | adj | mighty, powerful | ASD |
| wald, walt | n.masc | wold: forest | ASD/W7 | |
| wildi | adj | wild | W7 | |
| wolla | n.fem | wool | ASD/W7 | |
| German: | Wald | n.masc | wold: forest | LRC |
| wild | adj | wild | LRC | |
| Wolle | n.fem | wool | LRC | |
| North Germanic | ||||
| Old Norse: | villr | adj | wild, astray | LRC |
| vǫllr | n.masc | wold, untilled field | ODE | |
| Icelandic: | ull | n.fem | wool | ASD |
| villr | adj | wild | ASD | |
| völlr | n.masc | wold: plain, field | ASD | |
| Danish: | uld | n | wool | TLL |
| Swedish: | ull | n | wool | TLL |
| vild | adj | wild | TLL | |
| East Germanic | ||||
| Gothic: | wilþeis | adj | wild | ASD |
| wulla, wolla | n.fem | wool | ASD | |
| Italic | ||||
| Latin: | lāna | n.fem | wool | W7 |
| lanatus | adj | woolen | W7 | |
| lanugo | n.fem | wool; cocoon | W7 | |
| vellus | n.neut | fleece | W7 | |
| Middle French: | lanier | n.masc | lanner | W7 |
| Baltic | ||||
| Lithuanian: | vluna | n | wool | LRC |
| Slavic | ||||
| Old Church Slavonic: | vlasъ | n.masc | hair | LRC |
| Hellenic | ||||
| Homeric Greek: | εἰλύω | vb | to roll, wrap, enfold | LS |
| οὖλος | adj | woolen, woolly | LRC | |
| Greek: | λῆνος | n.neut | wool | LRC |
| Anatolian | ||||
| Hittite: | hulana- | n | wool | LRC |
| Iranian | ||||
| Avestan: | var̥na | n | wool | LRC |
| Indic | ||||
| Sanskrit: | ū́rfā | n | wool | LRC |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| adj | = | adjective |
| fem | = | feminine (gender) |
| masc | = | masculine (gender) |
| n | = | noun |
| neut | = | neuter (gender) |
| prop | = | proper |
| 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 |
| LS | = | Liddell and Scott: Greek-English Lexicon, 7th-9th ed's (1882-1940), rev. |
| ODE | = | C.T. Onions: The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966) |
| OED | = | James A.H. Murray et al: The Oxford English Dictionary (1933) |
| TLL | = | Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944) |
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |