Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/péh₂wr̥

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Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/péh₂wr̥

This Proto-Indo-European entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Indo-European

Etymology

Often considered to contain the suffix *-wr̥.

Noun

*péh₂wr̥ n[1]

1. fire
2. spelt (grain)[2][3]

Usage notes

• Two main terms for “fire” are reconstructible for Proto-Indo-European: *h₁n̥gʷnis and *péh₂wr̥. They are usually considered in semantic opposition. The term *h₁n̥gʷnis is usually masculine and refers to fire as something animate and active (compare Agni, the most prominent Old Indic deity), whereas the term *péh₂wr̥ is neuter and refers to fire as something inanimate and passive, i.e. as a substance.

Inflection

Athematic, proterokinetic
	singular	collective
nominative	*péh₂wr̥	*péh₂wōr
genitive	*ph₂wéns	*ph₂unés
	singular	dual	plural	collective
nominative	*péh₂wr̥	—	—	*péh₂wōr
vocative	*péh₂wr̥	—	—	*péh₂wōr
accusative	*péh₂wr̥	—	—	*péh₂wōr
genitive	*ph₂wéns	—	—	*ph₂unés
ablative	*ph₂wéns	—	—	*ph₂unés
dative	*ph₂wéney	—	—	*ph₂unéy
locative	*ph₂wén, *ph₂wéni	—	—	*ph₂wén, *ph₂wéni
instrumental	*ph₂wénh₁	—	—	*ph₂unéh₁

Synonyms

• *h₁n̥gʷnís

Descendants

• Proto-Anatolian: *páHʷr̥ (see there for further descendants)
• Armenian:
  • Old Armenian: հուր (hur) (< *puh₂r-)
  • Old Armenian: հն-ոց (hn-ocʿ, “furnace”) (< *ph₂wéns + -ոց (-ocʿ))
• Proto-Balto-Slavic:
  • Latvian: pūrs (“winter wheat”) but more often pūr̨i in analogy to kvieši, rudzi, mieži
  • Lithuanian: pū̃ras (“one corn of winter-wheat; used in the plural for winter-wheat”)
  • Old Prussian: panno (“fire”), pure (“bromegrass”)
  • Proto-Slavic: *pyrь (“cinder; couch grass; spelt”) (see there for further descendants)
  • → Proto-Finnic: *panu (“fire”) (see there for further descendants)
• Proto-Germanic: *fōr (from *ph₂wṓr < *péh₂wōr) (see there for further descendants)
  • ⇒ Old English: fyrs, fyres (“furze, gorse”)
    • Middle English: firse, fyrs, furs, ferse, forse, fyrrys, vors, virs
      • English: furze
• Proto-Hellenic: *pāwər?
  • Ancient Greek: πῦρ (pûr), πῠρᾰ́ (purá)
  • Ancient Greek: πῡρός (pūrós, “wheat”)
    • →? Arabic: بُرّ‎ (burr, “wheat”)
    • → Old Georgian: პური (ṗuri)
      • Georgian: პური (ṗuri, “wheat; bread”)
        • → Armenian: պուրի (puri)
    • → Sicilian: puru puru (“repeated interjection to call hens, now disconnected from the sense of 'wheat'”)
    • ⇒ Ancient Greek: πύρνον (púrnon, “wheaten bread; food, meat”) (compare the Arabic طَعَام‎ (ṭaʿām) for the semantics)
• Proto-Italic: *pur (see there for further descendants)
• Tocharian:
  • Tocharian A: por
  • Tocharian B: puwar

References

1. Ringe, Donald (2006) From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (A Linguistic History of English; 1)‎, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN
2. Gamkrelidze, Th. V.; Ivanov, V. V. (1995) Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans. A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language and Proto-Culture. Part I: The Text (Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs; 80), Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pages 566–567 – he gives pʰūr-
3. Трубачёв, Олег Николаевич (a. 2002) Этногенез и культура древнейших славян (in Russian), Moscow: Наука, published 2003, →ISBN, pages 232–233 – he gives pūr-, but according to him it is the same word as the one for fire because spelt required drying by the fire.

Further reading

• Mallory, J. P.; Adams, D. Q., editors (1997) Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture, London, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, page 202