| 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: | gwher- |
| DEFINITION: | To heat, warm.
Derivatives include brand, brandy, forceps, and fornicate.
1. Zero-grade form *gwhr-. a. burn1, from Old English beornan, byrnan (intransitive) and bærnan (transitive), to burn; b. brimstone, from late Old English brynst n, “burning mineral,” sulfur (stn, stone; see stei-); c. brindled, from Old Norse brenna, to burn. a–c all from Germanic *brennan (intransitive) and brannjan (transitive), formed from *brenw- with nasal suffix and analogical vocalism. 2a. brand, from Old English brand, piece of burning wood, sword; b. brandy, from Dutch branden, to burn, distill; c. brandish, from Old French brand, sword; d. brandade, from Old Provençal brand, sword. a–d all from Germanic *brandaz, a burning, a flaming torch, hence also a sword. 3. Suffixed form *gwher-m(n)o-. therm, –therm, thermo-, –thermy; hypothermia, lobster thermidor, from Greek thermos, warm, hot, and therm , heat. 4. O-grade form *gwhor-. forceps, forcipate, from Latin forceps, pincers, fire tongs (< “that which holds hot things”; -ceps, agential suffix, “-taker”; see kap-). 5. Suffixed o-grade form *gwhor-no-. a. Fornax, furnace, hornito, from Latin furnus, fornus, fornx, oven; b. probably Latin fornix, arch, vault (< “vaulted brick oven”): fornicate, fornix. 6. Suffixed zero-grade form *gwh -to-, heated, likely source of Sanskrit gh tam, ghee, clarified butter: ghee. (Pokorny g her- 493, bh(e)reu- 143.) |
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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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