called txDictionary > Indo-European Roots
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- building, home
- (Notable English members of this root are the words around the Latin domestic including words like "madame" and also the word "timber")
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- cutting
- (Notable English members of this family are shelf, shield, skill, half, scale and a few others.)
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- crooked, angled, having a limp
- (The one member of this family I could find in the sources was "shank".)
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- splitting, cutting with sharp tool
- (Notable English members of this root are "scab", "to shave", "shape" and "scapula". And possibly also "scoop", though Etymolonline.com mentions two conflicting origin stories there.)
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- bending, turning, moving around
- (One of multiple roots that are about turning. Notable English members of this family are curve, range, rank, search, shrink, crown and shrink.)
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- cutting, slicing
- (Notable English members of this family are "share, "shear", "shore", "shirt", "short", "sharp", "screen", "score", "scrabble" and the words around "carni-" and more.)
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- sieving, discriminating
- (Most notable English members of this family go back to the Latin "cernere" which meant "to sift". It's the origin of words like certain, concert, excrete and secret. Other members are crisis, crime and critical. )
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- slime, gliding
- (Notable family members in English are slick, slime, lime (stone), slip, slight and delete.)
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- gliding, slipping in/out
- (Notable English members of that family are "lubricant" and its relatives and "sleeve". The verb "to slip" is not related etymologically.)
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- sewing, spinning (twirling together threads)
- (Notable English members of this family are "needle" and via a variant of the root also "the net", "node", "nexus" and "connect".)
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- tendon, sinew
- (This root is the origin of the Greek "neuro-". The Greeks thought tendons and nerves are similar in kind and used the same word. Later, the term focused on nerves only.)
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- strewing, spraying, scattering small particles.
- (Notable English members of this family are "spray", "sprout" and "spread" and probably also "sperm" and "spore". Sources don't mention this connection directly, but the Greek ancestor for sperm and spore is also mentioned in context of this root.)
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- drawing (in length), stretching, spinning
- (Notable English members of this family are "span", "spider" and the various words around "pend" (depend, suspend, expensive...) which is the Latin base for "hanging".)
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- splitting, splicing
- (Notable English members of this family are "split", "splice" and "flint".)
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- covering
- (Notable English members of the family are "deck", "protect", "detect", "thatch" and "tile".)
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- stiff
- (This family is surprisingly broad with members like stern, stark, starch, stereo, torpedo, stare and even start and startle.)
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- to thrust forth, to push, to knock
- (Notable English members of this family are "steep", "step-" as in "stepbrother", "stupid" and "to study". Many etymologists also connect "to stop" and "stuff" here, but I should mention that that connection is contested by some.)
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- possess, be master of
- (Notable English members of this root are owe, own, freight and ought.)
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- vital force, long life
- (Notable English members of this root are "ever", "age", "every", "each", "eon", "eternal", "never" and "Ayurvedic".)
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- to grow, to nourish
- (Notable English members of this family are "old", "world", "adolescent", "adult", "elder" and "altitude".)
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- around, from both sides
- (The root is a combination of the root *ant- (front, forehead) and *bho, which meant "both". Besides words with "ambi-" it is also the origin of "both" and "by", "be-" and "about".)
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- front, forehead, what's ahead
- (Notable English members are "end", "until", "answer" and all words with "anti" and many with "ad-")
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- away, off
- (Notable English members of this family are of, off, after, apology, apocalypse and apostrophe. Check the entry for more details.)
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- fitting together
- (Notable English members of that root are "arm", "art", "article" anything with the Latin based "order" and "artho-")
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- increase
- (Notable English members of this family are "to wax (become", "waist", author", "augment", "August" and "auction".)
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- beech tree
- (Notable English members of this family are "beech", "book" and )
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- to split
- (The Germanic branch focused on the fields of biting and woodwork. Notable English members of the family are "boat", "bite", "bitter" and "bit" and also the Latin based "fission" and "pita" and "pizza".)
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- swelling, inflating, bulging
- (Notable English members are ball, boulder, blood, bloom and the Latin branch around flora.)
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- shining, burning, flashing
- (Notable English members of this family are "bleak", "bleach", "blank", "flame", "blind", "blue", "blend" and "blond")
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- binding
- (Notable English members of this family are to bend, to bind, band, bandana, bond, bundle and ribbon.)
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- boiling, bubbling, burning
- (Notable English members of this family are braze, bread, brew, broth, brood, ferment, fervor and Brazil.)
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- carry, bear children
- (Besides the words revolving on birth, it is also the root of English words like offer, differ, suffer and transfer that all kind of tie in with bearing. )
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- be, existing, growing
- (Notable English members of this family are "to be", "build", "neighbor" (near-builder), "bustle", all the words with "phys-" in them and last but not least ... boomer. Take that Gen Z... boomer comes from being.)
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- bending, giving way, fleeing
- (Notable English members of the root are "bow" and "bagel" as well as the Latin branch around "fugitive" with words like "centrifuge" or "refuge".)
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- breaking
- (Notable English members of this family are "to break", "to breach", "brick", "brake" and "Brexit"... well...maybe not the last one ;). Other members come from the branch around fracture with words like frail and fragment. )
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- to enjoy, to use
- (Notable English members of this family are "to brook", "fruit", "frugal" and "function".)
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- wide, not narrow
- (This is a Germanic root that has no known connections outside of Germanic languages. The main English offspring is "broad".)
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- divide
- (Notable English members of this root are "time", "deal", "demon", "democracy", "tide" and everyone's favorite word of the early 2020s: "pandemic". (PTSD activates).)
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- showing, telling
- (Notable English members of this rather large family are token, indict, dictionary, judge, judiciary, dictate, verdict, dire and index. All words revolve around "showing, telling" in some way.)
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- long, length
- (Notable English members of this family are "long" and the Latin based family around "long-" with words like "longitude" or "elongate".)
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- telling, counting
- (Notable English members of this family are "to tell", "tale", "teller" and "talk".)
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- split, flay, peel
- (Notable English members of this family are "to tear", "tart" and the branch around "dermis".)
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- making steps, walking, running
- (Notable English members are "to tread", "trip" and "trap", but we should note that this root is not 100% certain. )
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- firm, hard, strong
- (This root grew into an impressive tree and is the origin of English words like trust, true, tree, duration, trough, tar and druid. )
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- leading, guiding, pulling
- (The biggest group of English words in this family is the group around the Latin verb *ducere, which meant to lead and which we see in in words like "produce, induce, conduct" and more. Besides those, also "team", "tow" and "tug" belong here.)
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- "putting, laying, placing"
- (This is one of the biggest trees of them all. A few examples for English members are "to do", "to add", "thesis" and "theme" and all the many words that come from the Latin "facere" like "fact", "effect" or "fetish". )
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- blow, smoke, mist, dark
- (The core theme is about smoke or vapor and how it hinders sight. A notable English relative is most probably "damp".)
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- dust, small particles whirling wildly
- (Notable English members of family are "dust", "dumb", "fume" and "deaf". )
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- deep, hollow
- (Besides of "deep" and its relatives, there are no other members of the family in English.)
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Here's a quick overview with translations. For family, examples and more check the details.
