*ēnu

Runic: ᛖᚾᚢ Pronunciation: /ˈɛː.nu/

preposition

Meanings

without (with accusative)

Etymology

(Dunkel 2014) reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *énu (‘along, after’) for Gothic, and lengthened grade *ḗnu for North and West Proto-Germanic and notes that a construction with an initial laryngeal is unnecessary. Cognate with Vedic Sanskrit अनु- (ánu-) (ánu-, ‘after, along, alongside’), which is especially informative in its use in negative compounds, such as अनानुकृत्य (anānukṛtyá), meaning ‘inimitable, unparalleled, not to be done again’. The Proto-Germanic reflexes continue a similar semantic shift from ‘along/following’ to a privative sense in negative constructions: ‘not following, not accompanied by’ → ‘without’.

Descendants

  • ānu (Proto-West Germanic)
    • *āna (Old Dutch)
      • ane, an, on (Middle Dutch)
        • ane dancs, ondancs (Middle Dutch)
          • ondanks (Dutch)
          • óndanks, óndanx (Limburgish)
  • ānu (Proto-West Germanic)
    • ōne, ōni (Old Frisian)
  • ānu (Proto-West Germanic)
    • āna, āne, āno, ānu (Old High German)
      • âne, ân (Middle High German)
        • ooni, ohni, ouni (Alemannic German)
        • ohne (German)
        • אָן (on) (Yiddish)
  • ānu (Proto-West Germanic)
    • āna, āne, āno, ānu (Old High German)
      • âne, ân (Middle High German)
        • ohne, ohni, ohnt (Central Franconian)
          • ouni (Luxembourgish)
  • ānu (Proto-West Germanic)
    • āno (Old Saxon)
      • āne (Middle Low German)
        • ahn (Low German)
  • *ᚨᚾᚢ (*anu) (Proto-Norse)
    • án, ón (Old Norse)
      • ón (Faroese)
      • án (Icelandic)
  • 𐌹𐌽𐌿 (inu), 𐌹𐌽𐌿𐌷 (inuh) (Gothic)

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