Indo-European
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: anthropology
archaeology
history
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
Etymology: Coined by English polymath Thomas Young in 1813, from Indo- + European, relating to the geographical extremes in India and Europe (which was valid before the discovery of Tocharian languages in the early 20th century).
Base: European
Affixes: Indo-
Inflected forms:
form: Indo-Europeans
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: Indoeuropean
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: IE
pos: noun
tags: alternative
initialism
form: IE.
pos: noun
tags: alternative
initialism
form: more Indo-European
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most Indo-European
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: Indoeuropean
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: IE
pos: adj
tags: alternative
initialism
form: IE.
pos: adj
tags: alternative
initialism
Senses:
gloss: A member of the original ethnolinguistic group hypothesized to have spoken Proto-Indo-European and thus to have been the ancestor for most of India and Western Eurasia.
pos: noun
examples: Two theories of the origins of the Indo-Europeans currently compete. M. Gimbutas believes that early Indo-Europeans entered southeastern Europe from the Pontic Steppes starting ca. 4500 B.C. and spread from there. C. Renfrew equates early Indo-Europeans with early farmers who entered southeastern Europe from Asia Minor ca. 7000 BC and spread through the continent.
Thus, although at least one term for ‘alder’ can be reconstructed to PIE, the wide distribution of this tree prevents it from being diagnostic of the earlier location of the Indo-Europeans.
gloss: A speaker of any Indo-European language (though especially an ancient one), or a member of an Indo-European culture, who is regarded as a continuation of the Proto-Indo-Europeans in terms of language, ancestry, or cultural affinity.
pos: noun
examples: To the same direction points a recent revelation made by Professor Henning who identifies the Gutians or Kutians and Tukres of the ancient Near East that occur in the cuneiform inscriptions of the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. with historical Kuchi-Tocharians, this being the earliest appearance of the Indo-Europeans in history (cf. W. Henning, the first Indo-Europeans in history, "Society and History." […]).
We Indo-Europeans are crazy about three! We see the world as earth, sky, water. We see things as having a beginning, a middle, and an end. Do you want a third example? Sure you do—you're Indo-European!
gloss: A European living in India or the Indies.
pos: noun
tags: rare
examples: The sale of looted items persisted for a month, and quick profits were made by burghers and Indo-Europeans.
gloss: A person of mixed European and Indian or Indonesian ancestry.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
uncommon
gloss: Of or relating to the family of languages originally spoken in Europe and Western Asia.
pos: adj
examples: Of the great Indo-European family of languages the general principal was also that of one name for each individual[…]
gloss: Of or relating to the hypothetical parent language of the Indo-European language family.
pos: adj
gloss: Of or relating to the hypothetical group of peoples that spread early Indo-European languages.
pos: adj
examples: As there is no evidence for Indo-European apiculture, we have to reckon with foreign origin for κηρός […].
gloss: Of or relating to persons of mixed European and Indian or Indonesian ancestry.
pos: adj
tags: broadly
uncommon
Translations: