Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/sneygʷʰ-

Root

 * 1)  to snow

Reconstruction notes
Karl Hoffman proposed in 1965 that the original meaning of the root was "to stick, remain", with semantic shift to "snow" (i.e. snow is that which sticks). That sense is still being assigned in LIV. However, that interpretation is highly unlikely, given that all the other daughters except Sanskrit (and also within Indo-Iranian and even Indo-Aryan family itself; cf. Prakrit reflex siṇēha "snow, hoarfrost") point to "to snow" as the original meaning of the root. According to Cheung (2007), Hoffman's explanation that this meaning could have coexisted with the meaning "to snow" is untenable. Cheung (2007) argues that the Sanskrit meaning "to stick, remain; sticky fluid" is secondary (possibly of slang origin) "perhaps from whitish bodily fluids which are compared to snow, notably snot and spit".

Derived terms

 * *snéygʷʰ-e-ti
 * *snigʷʰ-e-ti
 * Hellenic:
 * *sni-né-gʷʰ-ti ~ *sni-n-gʷʰ-énti
 * Italic:
 * *snigʷʰ-yé-ti
 * *snéygʷʰ-s
 * *snóygʷʰ-o-s
 * Unsorted formations:
 * Balto-Slavic:
 * Indo-Iranian:
 * Iranian:
 * Tocharian:
 * (< nominalized < )
 * *snéygʷʰ-s
 * *snóygʷʰ-o-s
 * Unsorted formations:
 * Balto-Slavic:
 * Indo-Iranian:
 * Iranian:
 * Tocharian:
 * (< nominalized < )
 * Indo-Iranian:
 * Iranian:
 * Tocharian:
 * (< nominalized < )
 * (< nominalized < )