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

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

Appendix I

Indo-European Roots

ENTRY:	g^when-
DEFINITION:	To strike, kill. Derivatives include bane, fence, and offend. 1. O-grade form g^whon-. a. bane, from Old English bana,* slayer, cause of ruin or destruction; b. autobahn, from Middle High German ban, bane, way, road (< “strike” in a technical sense like “swath”). Both a and b from Germanic suffixed form ban-n-. 2. Suffixed zero-grade form g^wh-ty-. a. gun, from Old Norse gunnr, war; b. gonfalon, from Italian gonfalone, standard, from Germanic compound gund-fann-, “battle flag” (fann-, flag; see pan-). Both a and b from Germanic gundj, war, battle. 3. Suffixed form g^when-do-. a. defend, defense, fence, fend, from Latin dfendere, to ward off (d-, away; see de-); b. offend, offense, from Latin offendere, to strike against, be offensive, offend (ob-, against; see epi). 4. Suffixed zero-grade form g^wh-tro-. bezoar, from Persian zahr,* poison, from Old Iranian jathra-. 5. Full-grade form g^when-. bonze, from Sanskrit hanti, he strikes. (Pokorny 2. ghen-()- 491, bhen- 126.)


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.