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

Appendix I

Indo-European Roots
 
ENTRY:wegh-
DEFINITION:To go, transport in a vehicle. Oldest form *weh-, becoming *wegh- in centum languages.
Derivatives include weight, away, wagon, earwig, devious, trivial, and vex.
1. weigh1, from Old English wegan, to carry, balance in a scale, from Germanic *wegan. 2. wee, from Old English wg(e), weight, unit of weight, from Germanic lengthened-grade form *wg. 3. Suffixed form *wegh-ti-. weight, from Old English wiht, gewiht, weight, from Germanic *wihti-. 4a. way; always, away, from Old English weg, way; b. Norwegian, from Old Norse vegr, way; c. thalweg, from Old High German weg, way. a–c all from Germanic *wegaz, course of travel, way. 5. Suffixed o-grade form *wogh-no-. a. wain, from Old English wæ(g)n, wagon; b. wagon, from Middle Dutch wagen, wagon. Both a and b from Germanic *wagnaz. 6. Suffixed o-grade form *wogh-lo-. a. walleyed, from Old Norse vagl, chicken roost, perch, beam, eye disease, from Germanic *waglaz; b. ochlocracy, ochlophobia, from Greek okhlos, populace, mob (< “moving mass”). 7. Distantly related to this root are: a. (i) graywacke, from Old High German waggo, wacko, boulder rolling on a riverbed, from Germanic *wag-, “to move about”; (ii) wag1, from Middle English waggen, to wag, possibly from Germanic *wag-; b. vogue, from Old French voguer, to row, sail, from Old Saxon *wogn, to rock, sway, from Germanic *wga-, water in motion; c. (i) earwig, from Old English wicga, insect (< “thing that moves quickly”); (ii) wiggle, from Middle Dutch and Middle Low German wiggelen, to move back and forth, wag. Both (i) and (ii) from Germanic *wig-. 8. Basic form *wegh-. vector, vehement, vehicle; advection, convection, evection, invective, inveigh, from Latin vehere (past participle vectus), to carry. 9. Suffixed basic form *wegh-y-. foy, via, viatical, voyage; convey, convoy, deviate, devious, envoi, envoy1, invoice, obviate, obvious, ogee, ogive, pervious, previous, trivial, trivium, viaduct, from Latin via, way, road. 10. Suffixed form *wegh-s-. vex, from Latin vexre, to agitate (< “to set in motion”). 11. Probably suffixed form *wegh-so-. convex, from Latin convexus, “carried or drawn together (to a point),” convex (com-, together; see kom). (Pokorny eh- 1118.)
 
 
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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