The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots

by Watkins, Calvert

• ISBN13: 9780618082506
• ISBN10: 0618082506
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-14
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

Fully revised and updated, THE AMERICAN HERITAGE 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.

Author Biography

CALVERT WATKINS is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Linguistics and the Classics at Harvard University and a leading expert in Indo-European studies. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, he is the author of several books, including the critically acclaimed How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics. He resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Foreword	iv
Preface	v
Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans	vii
Guide to the Dictionary	xxxvi
Indo-European Roots	1	(104)
Index	105	(41)
Table of Indo-European Sound Correspondences	146	(2)
Chart of Indo-European Languages	148