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   The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.  2000.
 

Appendix I

Indo-European Roots
 
ENTRY:d-
DEFINITION:To divide. Oldest form *de2-, colored to *da2-, contracted to *d-.
Derivatives include democracy, epidemic, demon, and time.
   I. Suffixed form *d-mo-, perhaps “division of society.” deme, demos, demotic; demagogue, demiurge, democracy, demography, endemic, epidemic, pandemic, from Greek dmos, people, land.
   II. Variant *dai-, from extended form *dai-, with zero-grade *d- (< *di-, metathesized from *di-). 1. Root form *dai-. geodesy, from Greek daiesthai, to divide. 2. Suffixed form *dai-mon-, divider, provider. daimon, demon, from Greek daimn, divinity. 3. Suffixed variant form *d-ti-. a. tide1; eventide, from Old English td, time, season; b. tide2, from Old English denominative tdan, to happen (< “to occur in time”); c. tiding, from Old Norse tdhr, occurring; d. Yahrzeit, Zeitgeist, from Old High German zt, time. a–d all from Germanic *tdiz, division of time. 4. Suffixed variant form *d-mon-. time, from Old English tma, time, period, from Germanic *tmn-. (Pokorny d : d- 175.)
 
 
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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