| 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: | pent- |
| DEFINITION: | To tread, go.
Derivatives include find, pontiff, and sputnik.
1. find, from Old English findan, to find, from Germanic *finthan, to come upon, discover. 2. Suffixed o-grade form *pont-i-. a. pons, pontifex, pontiff, pontine, pontoon, punt1; transpontine, from Latin p ns (stem pont-), bridge (earliest meaning, “way, passage,” preserved in the priestly title pontifex, “he who prepares the way”; -fex, maker; see dh -); b. sputnik, from Russian sputnik, fellow traveler, sputnik, from put', path, way. 3. Zero-grade form *p t-. peripatetic, from Greek patein, to tread, walk. 4. Suffixed zero-grade form *pt- -. a. path, from Old English pæth, path; b. pad2; footpad, from Middle Dutch pad, way, path. Both a and b from Germanic *patha-, way, path, probably borrowed (? via Scythian) from Iranian *path-. (Pokorny pent- 808.) |
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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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