indo-european
/ˌɪndəʊˌjʊəɹəˈpiːən/
Frequency: 3.44 in modern English
Meaning
name
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.
name
Proto-Indo-European: the hypothetical parent language of the Indo-European language family.
noun
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.
noun
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.
adj
Of or relating to the family of languages originally spoken in Europe and Western Asia.
adj
Of or relating to the hypothetical parent language of the Indo-European language family.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
- "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." […])."
- "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!"
- "The sale of looted items persisted for a month, and quick profits were made by burghers and Indo-Europeans."
- "Of the great Indo-European family of languages the general principal was also that of one name for each individual[…]"