Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₁er-

Of unknown origin. Possibly a late West Central Indo-European dialectal word.

Within Nostratic framework derived from Proto-Nostratic *ʔer-a (“earth, ground”) (Bomhard 2015) or *ʔarV̄ (“earth, land, place”) (Dolgopolsky) with cognates such as:

• Proto-Afro-Asiatic *ʔ[e]r-t͜ɬ’ (“earth, ground”): Proto-Semitic *ʾarṣ́-, West Chadic *HVrit͜ɬ’- (“earth”), East Chadic *ʔirt͜ɬ’- (“valley”).
• Dravidian: Kannada [script needed] (ere, “black soil”), Telugu రేగడ (rēgaḍa), రేగడి (rēgaḍi, “clay”), (prefixed forms of గడ్డ (gaḍḍa, “clod”))

*h₁er-

1. earth

• *h₂erh₃-

• Unsorted formations:
  • Albanian: *ā̆ur(V)n
    • Albanian: varr
  • Balto-Slavic (uncertain):
    • Lithuanian: érdvė
  • Celtic:
    • Welsh: erw (“field”) (or < *h₂erh₃- (“to plow”))
  • Germanic: *erþō (“earth, ground, soil”) (see there for further descendants)
  • Hellenic:
    • Ancient Greek: *ἔρα (*éra) in ἔραζε (éraze, “on the ground”) and compounds
  • Tocharian: [Term?]:
    • Tocharian B: āre[1]

• Mallory, J. P.; Adams, D. Q., editors (1997) Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture, London, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, page 174
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 449
• Mallory, J. P.; Adams, D. Q. (2006) The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World (Oxford Linguistics), New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 122
• Allan Bomhard (2015), A Comprehensive Introduction to Nostratic Comparative Linguistics, 2nd edition, Volume 3, p. 751f