Indo-European

In·do-Eu·ro·pe·an

designating or of a family of languages that includes most of those spoken in Europe and many of those spoken in SW Asia and India

the Indo-European family of languages: its principal branches are Albanian, Anatolian, Armenian, Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Greek, Indic, Iranian (often grouped with Indic as the Indo-Iranian subfamily), Italic, Slavic, and Tocharian
the hypothetical language, reconstructed by modern linguists, from which these languages are thought to have descended: in this sense, Proto-Indo-European is now the preferred term
1. a member of a people that speaks an Indo-European language
2. a hypothetical speaker of Proto-Indo-European

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"Indo-European." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Indo-European>.

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Indo-European. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Indo-European

Indo-European

noun

a. A family of languages consisting of most of the languages of Europe as well as those of Iran, the Indian subcontinent, and other parts of Asia.
b. Proto-Indo-European.
A member of any of the peoples speaking an Indo-European language.

Related Forms:

In′do-Eu′ro·pe′an
adjective

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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MLA Style

"Indo-European." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Indo-European>.

APA Style

Indo-European. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Indo-European

Proper noun

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.

Noun

(plural Indo-Europeans)

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.

Adjective

(comparative more Indo-European, superlative most Indo-European)

Of or relating to the languages originally spoken in Europe and Western Asia.
Of or relating to the hypothetical parent language of the Indo-European language family. Also called Proto-Indo-European and abbreviated PIE.
Of or relating to the hypothetical group of peoples that spread Indo-European languages.

Origin

Coined in 1813 by Sir Thomas Young, 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).

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"Indo-European." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Indo-European>.

APA Style

Indo-European. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Indo-European

Indo-European

Indo-European

Sentence Examples

Also Mentioned In

WORDS NEAR Indo-European IN THE DICTIONARY

Indo-European

Indo-European

Sentence Examples

Also Mentioned In

WORDS NEAR Indo-European IN THE DICTIONARY

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