| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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Appendix I
Indo-European Roots |
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| ENTRY: | eis- |
| DEFINITION: | In words denoting passion. 1. Suffixed form *eis- -. irascible, irate, ire, from Latin  ra, anger. 2. Suffixed zero-grade form *is-( )ro-, powerful, holy. hieratic, hiero-; hierarch, hierarchy, hierodule, hieroglyphic, hierophant, from Greek hieros, “filled with the divine,” holy. 3a. iron, from Old English se(r)n, ren, iron; b. gisarme, spiegeleisen, from Old High German sarn, san, iron. Both a and b from Germanic *sarno-, “holy metal” (possibly from Celtic). 4. Suffixed o-grade form *ois-tro-, madness. estrus; estrogen, estrone, from Greek oistros, gadfly, goad, anything causing madness. 5. Suffixed form *eis-mo. Asmodeus, from Avestan a  ma-, anger. (Pokorny 1. eis- 299.) |
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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