The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European RootsCalvert Watkins Fully revised and updated, THE AMERICAN HERITAGE(R) DICTIONARY OF INDO-EUROPEAN ROOTS remains an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the history of English and its place in the Indo-European language family. More than 13,000 words are traced to their origins in Proto-Indo-European, the prehistoric ancestor of English that was spoken before the advent of writing. In Calvert Watkins's skilled hands, Proto-Indo-European language and society are rendered as alive and compelling as they must have been six thousand years ago. His introductory essay shows how words in an unrecorded ancient language can be reconstructed and offers a wealth of fascinating information about Proto-Indo-European culture. The dictionary that follows contains nearly 1,350 reconstructed roots, plus two dozen new "Language and Culture" notes that explore interesting sidelights to the etymologies presented in many entries. |
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Common terms and phrases
akin to Middle akin to Old ambhi attested Avestan Basic form Celtic colored comparative Contracted from earlier Culture Note dekm derivatives referring dialectal extended root Extended zero-grade form feminine fixed form fixed o-grade form Frankish Germanic compound Germanic derivative Germanic form Germanic root Germanic source akin Germanic suffixed form Greek Hittite Indo Indo-European Roots intensive prefix Iranian Italic korny Language and Culture Late Latin Latin compound lish manic meaning Medieval Latin Middle Dutch Middle English Middle Low German Nasalized form Nasalized zero-grade form Old Church Slavonic Old Eng Old English Old French Old High German Old Irish Old Norse Old Persian Oldest form originally past participle perą Perhaps suffixed personal name plural Pokor Pokorny Proto-Indo-European reconstructed Reduplicated form root form Russian Sanskrit Scandinavian source akin shine Slavic stem Suffixed extended form Suffixed o-grade form Suffixed stative Suffixed variant form Suffixed zero-grade form Tocharian variant metathesized verb vowels whence