| 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: | meg- |
| DEFINITION: | Great. Oldest form *me -, becoming *meg- in centum languages.
Derivatives include much, magnate, mayor, maestro, and maharajah.
1a. mickle, much, from Old English micel, mycel, great; b. mickle, from Old Norse mikill. Both a and b from Germanic suffixed form *mik-ila-. 2. Suffixed form *mag-no-. magnate, magnitude, magnum; magnanimous, magnific, magnificent, magnifico, magnify, magniloquent, from Latin magnus, great. 3. Suffixed (comparative) form *mag-yos-. a. major, major-domo, majority, majuscule, mayor, from Latin m ior, greater; b. maestoso, majesty, from Latin miests, greatness, authority; c. maestro, magisterial, magistral, magistrate, master, mister, mistral, mistress, from Latin magister, master, high official (< “he who is greater”). 4. Suffixed (superlative) form *mag-samo-. maxim, maximum, from Latin maximus, greatest. 5. Suffixed (feminine) form *mag-ya-, “she who is great.” may2, May, from Latin Maia, name of a goddess. 6. Suffixed form *meg- -(l-). mega-, megalo-; acromegaly, omega, from Greek megas (stem megal-), great. 7. Suffixed (superlative) form meg-()-isto-. Almagest, Hermes Trismegistus, from Greek megistos, greatest. 8. Variant form *megh- (< *meg--). Mahabharata, maharajah, maharani, maharishi, mahatma, Mahayana, mahout, from Sanskrit mah-, mahat-, great. (Pokorny me(h)- 708.) |
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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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