Wurdahuzdą: Proto-Germanic dictionary

noun masculine a-stem hook, fishhook point, tip From Proto-Indo-European *h₂ankulós, analyzable as *h₂enk-u-ló-s, an *-ulo-/*-u-ló- formation from the root *h₂enk-. The formation was probably originally adjectival, ‘bent, curved’, and was substantivized in Germanic as ‘hook’ Erhard 2022: 107–109 Kroonen 2013: 28 Ringe 2017: 124. The exact cognate is Ancient Greek ἀγκύλος, while Avestan 𐬀𐬥𐬐𐬎 and Sanskrit अङ्कुश belong to related formations from the same root Krahe & Meid 1969: 85. The accentuation provides unusually good confirmation of the reconstruction: Ringe contrasts root-accented pre-Germanic *h₂ánkulah₂ > Proto-Germanic *anhulō with suffix-accented pre-Germanic *h₂ankulós > PGmc *angulaz, in which Verner’s Law voices the reflex of *k to *g; the accent of Greek ἀγκύλος independently supports the latter accentuation through Wheeler’s Law Ringe 2017: 124. The older analysis of *angulaz as a Proto-Germanic diminutive of *angô¹ is therefore unnecessary: *angulaz and *angô¹ are better regarded as separate inherited derivatives of *h₂enk-. The sense ‘prickle, sting’ appears instead to have belonged originally to the related n-stem *angô¹ and to have spread secondarily to descendants of *angulaz in West Germanic from about the eleventh century onward Erhard 2022: 107–09.