Coined
by English polymath
Thomas Young
in 1813, from
Indo-
+
European
, relating to the geographical extremes in
India
and
Europe
(which was valid before the discovery of
Tocharian
languages in the early 20th century).
- IPA
(
key
)
:
/??nd???j?????piː?n/
Indo-
European
- A major
language
family
which includes many of the native languages of
Europe
,
Western Asia
and
India
, with notable
Indic
,
Iranian
and
European
sub-branches.
- Proto-Indo-European
: the hypothetical parent language of the Indo-European language family.
Indo-
European
(
plural
Indo-Europeans
)
- (
anthropology
,
archaeology
,
linguistics
)
A
member
of the original
ethnolinguistic
group hypothesized to have spoken
Proto-Indo-European
and thus to have been the ancestor for most of
India
and Western
Eurasia
.
- Synonyms:
Proto-Indo-European
,
Proto-Indo-European speaker
1992
, R.R. Sokal, N.L. Oden, B.A. Thomson, “Origins of the Indo-Europeans: genetic evidence”, in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, volume
89
,
→DOI
,
→PMID
:
Two theories of the origins of the
Indo-Europeans
currently compete. M. Gimbutas believes that early
Indo-Europeans
entered southeastern Europe from the Pontic Steppes starting ca. 4500 B.C. and spread from there. C. Renfrew equates early
Indo-Europeans
with early farmers who entered southeastern Europe from Asia Minor ca. 7000 BC and spread through the continent.
1997
, J. P. Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams, “ALDER”, in
Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
, London, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers,
→ISBN
, page
12
:
Thus, although at least one term for ‘alder’ can be reconstructed to PIE, the wide distribution of this tree prevents it from being diagnostic of the earlier location of the
Indo-Europeans
.
- A
speaker
of any Indo-European language (though especially an ancient one), or a member of an Indo-European
culture
, who is regarded as a continuation of the Proto-Indo-Europeans in terms of language, ancestry, or cultural affinity.
1988
, Thomas V. Gamkrelidze, “On the problem of an Asiatic original homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans”, in T.L. Markey and John A.C. Greppin, editors,
When Worlds Collide: The Indo-Europeans and the Pre-Indo-Europeans
, Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers, Inc., published
1990
,
→ISBN
, page 6:
To the same direction points a recent revelation made by Professor Henning who identifies the
Gutians
or
Kutians
and
Tukres
of the ancient Near East that occur in the cuneiform inscriptions of the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. with historical Kuchi-Tocharians, this being the earliest appearance of the
Indo-Europeans
in history (cf. W. Henning, the first
Indo-Europeans
in history, "Society and History." […]).
2015
December 18, Mark Damen, “The Indo-European Dual”, in
TEDxUSU
[2]
(video):
We
Indo-Europeans
are crazy about three! We see the world as earth, sky, water. We see things as having a beginning, a middle, and an end. Do you want a third example? Sure you do?you're Indo-European!
- (
rare
)
A
European
living in India or the
Indies
.
2020
, Sujit Sivasandaram,
Waves Across the South
, William Collins, published
2021
, page
236
:
The sale of looted items persisted for a month, and quick profits were made by burghers and
Indo-Europeans
.
- (
loosely
,
uncommon
)
A person of mixed European and
Indian
or
Indonesian
ancestry.
- The anthropological senses are an extension of the definition in linguistics.
- In older sources, often little distinction was made between the earliest Indo-Europeans (i.e. Proto-Indo-Europeans) and their descendants, as the Indo-European expansions were commonly regarded as part of a continuous whole “invasion” or similar replacement event, during which Indo-European?speaking peoples remained ethnocuoturally similar long after their dispersal, a view that is now outdated. Also, the prefix
Proto-
only gradually became standard throughout the 20th century, leaving “Indo-European” as a somewhat dated relic from a time before the prefix. In modern academic settings, the use of
Indo-European
as a countable noun is less common and discouraged for these reasons.
member of Proto-Indo-European ethnolinguistic group
Translations to be checked
Indo-
European
(
comparative
more
Indo-European
,
superlative
most
Indo-European
)
- Of or relating to the family of
languages
originally
spoken
in
Europe
and
Western Asia
.
- Of or relating to the hypothetical parent language of the Indo-European language family.
- Synonyms:
Proto-Indo-European
,
PIE
(
abbreviation
)
- Of or relating to the
hypothetical
group
of
peoples
that spread early
Indo-European
languages
.
2010
,
Robert S. P. Beekes
, “
κηρ??
”, in
Etymological Dictionary of Greek
(Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series;
10
), volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill,
→ISBN
, page
690
:
As there is no evidence for
Indo-European
apiculture, we have to reckon with foreign origin for κηρ?? […].
- (
loosely
,
uncommon
)
Of or relating to persons of mixed European and Indian or Indonesian ancestry.
of or relating to languages originally spoken in Europe and Western Asia
of or relating to hypothetical parent language of Indo-European language family
?
see also
Proto-Indo-European
of or relating to hypothetical group of peoples having spread Indo-European languages