| 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: | wet-1 |
| DEFINITION: | To blow, inspire, spiritually arouse. Related to w -. Oldest form * 2wet-.
Derivatives include Wednesday and atmosphere.
1. Lengthened-grade form *w t-. a. Woden; Wednesday, from Old English Wden, Woden; b. Odin, from Old Norse  dhinn, Odin; c. Wotan, from Old High German Wuotan. a–c all from Germanic suffixed form *wd-eno-, *wd-ono-, “raging,” “mad,” “inspired,” hence “spirit,” name of the chief Teutonic god *Wd-enaz; d. wood2, from Old English wd, mad, insane, from Germanic *wdaz; e. Celtic *w t-. vatic, from Latin vts, prophet, poet, from a Celtic source akin to Old Irish fáith, seer. 2. O-grade form *wot-. wedeln, from Old High German wedil, fan, from Germanic suffixed form *wath-ila-. 3. Suffixed variant form *wat-no-. fan1, van3, from Latin vannus, a winnowing fan. 4. Oldest basic form *wet- becoming *awet- in suffixed form *awet-mo-. atmosphere, from Greek atmos (< *aetmos), breath, vapor. (Pokorny 1.  t- 1113.) |
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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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