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: u̯ers- 'to drag along the ground'
Semantic Field(s): to Draw, Pull
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | ||||
| Old English: | wierresta, wyrsta | adj.sup | worst | W7 |
| wiersa, wyrsa | adj.comp | worse | W7 | |
| Middle English: | werre | n | war(fare) | W7 |
| werse, worse | adj.comp | worse | W7 | |
| werste, worste | adj.sup | worst | W7 | |
| English: | bratwurst | n | small fried pork sausage | AHD |
| guerrilla | n | irregular warfare waged by independent bands | AHD/W7 | |
| liverwurst | n | liver sausage | AHD/W7 | |
| war | n | state of open/declared armed hostile conflict | AHD/W7 | |
| worse | adj.comp | more inferior in value/quality/condition | AHD/W7 | |
| worst | adj.sup | most inferior in value/quality/condition | AHD/W7 | |
| wurst | n | sausage | AHD/W7 | |
| Scots English: | war | adj/adv | worse | AHD/W7 |
| West Germanic | ||||
| Old Frisian: | wirra | adj.comp | worse | ASD |
| Old Saxon: | wirsa | adj.comp | worse | ASD |
| wirsista | adj.sup | worst | ASD | |
| Old High German: | werra | n | strife, confusion | W7 |
| werran | vb | to confuse | W7 | |
| wirsiro | adj.comp | worse | W7 | |
| wirsisto | adj.sup | worst | ASD | |
| German: | Bratwurst | n.fem | bratwurst | LRC |
| Leberwurst | n.fem | liverwurst | W7 | |
| Wirren | n.neut | confusion | LRC | |
| Wurst | n.fem | sausage | W7 | |
| North Germanic | ||||
| Old Norse: | verr | adv | worse | W7 |
| verri | adj.comp | worse | W7 | |
| Icelandic: | verri | adj.comp | worse | ASD |
| verstr | adj.sup | worst | ASD | |
| Swedish: | värste | adj.sup | worst | TLL |
| East Germanic | ||||
| Gothic: | wairsiza | adj.comp | worse | ASD |
| Italic | ||||
| Latin: | verro, verrere | vb | to sweep (away) | W7 |
| Spanish: | guerrilla | n.fem.dim | guerrilla | W7 |
| Old North French: | werre | n.fem | war | W7 |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| adj | = | adjective |
| adv | = | adverb(ial) |
| comp | = | comparative |
| dim | = | diminutive |
| fem | = | feminine (gender) |
| n | = | noun |
| neut | = | neuter (gender) |
| sup | = | superlative |
| 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 |
| TLL | = | Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944) |
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |
