| 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: | ei- |
| DEFINITION: | To go. Oldest form * 1ei-, zero-grade *1i-.
Derivatives include ambition, perish, sudden, transit, ion, initial, janitor, and January.
1. Full-grade form *ei-. a. adit, ambient, ambition, circuit, coitus, comitia, exit, introit, issue, obituary, perish, praetor, preterit, sedition, subito, sudden, trance, transient, transit, transitive, from Latin  re, to go; b. ion; anion, cation, dysprosium, from Greek ienai, to go; c. Ramayana, from Sanskrit eti, he goes (< Indo-Iranian *ai-ti), and abstract noun ayanam, a going, way. 2. Suffixed zero-grade form *i-t-. a. Further suffixed form *i-t-yo-. commence, initial, initiate, from Latin initium, entrance, beginning (in-, in; see en); b. count2, county; concomitant, constable, viscount, from Latin comes (stem comit-), companion (< “one who goes with another”; com-, with; see kom). 3. Suffixed form *i-ter. errant, eyre, itinerant, itinerary, from Latin iter, journey. 4. Extended form *y - (< *1ya2-, colored from earlier *1ye2-) in suffixed forms *y-no-, *y-nu-. a. janitor, January, Janus, from Latin inus, archway, and Inus, god of doors and of the beginning of a year; b. Hinayana, Mahayana, from Sanskrit ynam, way (in Buddhism, “mode of knowledge,” “vehicle”). (Pokorny 1. ei- 293.) |
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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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