called txDictionary > Indo-European Roots
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- jump, make a quick move
- (There are no English members that I could find. )
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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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- 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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- fitting together
- (Notable English members of that root are "arm", "art", "article" anything with the Latin based "order" and "artho-")
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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
- (Notable English members are ball, blow, blood and also the words from the Latin branch "folio" and "floral".)
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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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- breaking
- (Notable English members of this family are "to break", "to breach", "brick", "brake" and "Brexit"... well...maybe not the last one ;).)
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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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- divide
- (Notable English members of this root are "time", "deal", "demon", "democracy", "tide" and everyone's favorite word... "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 "elonmusk"... I mean, "elongate".)
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- telling, counting
- (Notable English members of this family are "to tell", "tale", "teller" and "talk".)
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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", "skome" 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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- dragging (accross a surface)
- (Notable English members of this root are "to drag" and "to draw". A connection to the Latin "trahere" and "tract" are possible, but not 100% proven. That branch includes words like "contract" or "traction".)
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- to get engaged, become fixed
- (German sources do not mention this root, but English sources mention the German "pflegen" as a relative. English members of this family are "pledge", "indulge" and "play")
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- dry
- (This is a Germanic root, with no certain connections in other Indo-European languages. Notable English members of this family are dry and drought.)
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- "two"
- (In Latin, this root evolved into "d(u)o(u)" and "di-", in the Germanic branch it shifted more toward "tw-". The family contains a wide range of words that revolve around duality in some sense. )
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- bent, bendable
- (Notable English member of that family is the word "limb".)
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- repose, resting
- (English sources don't mention this root, but according to German source, the word "rest" in the sense of "repose" is related to this family. NOT the word "rest" as "leftover" though. That's a different root.)
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- shouting, calling
- (The only English member of this family that I could find is "to call".)
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- to freeze, cold
- (Notable English members of this family are "cool", "cold", "glacier", "chill" and "jelly".)
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- giving birth, begetting
- (This family is quite huge and includes loads of English words, like "gene", "gender", "genre", "genitals", "genious" the ending "-gen(u)ous" and also "king", "kind", "progeny", "natal", "nation" and "nature".)
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- turning, winding/coiling up (with some sense of tension)
- (English sources barely mention this root, but according to German sources, this would be the origin of "craft", "cramp", "crotch", "creep" and "cripple". At least for "creep", the root is mentioned, actually.)
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- grabbing, taking, handing over
- (Notable English members of this root are "give", "debt", "able", all the words around "habit", all the words around "hibit" like "inhibit" or "prohibit" and a few others. )
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- to go away, to release, to disappear
Here's a quick overview with translations. For family, examples and more check the details.
