*ǵenh₁-

approximately ‘genh₁’ · reconstructed root

to give birth
to beget

Kin, kind, genus, generate, and genealogy spread from a root concerned with birth and coming into being.

Then → now

The family reunion

*ǵenh₁- → Proto-Germanic *kunją → Old English cynn → English kin; *ǵenh₁- → Latin genus → English genus; *ǵenh₁- → Latin generāre → English generate; *ǵenh₁- → Ancient Greek génos → Greek genealogía → English genealogy — Selected routes, not an exhaustive family tree. Intermediate forms are simplified for a readable first look.

GermanicEnglish kinfamily; race
ItalicEnglish genuskind; class
ItalicEnglish generatebring forth
GreekEnglish genealogyaccount of descent

Tiny sentence

*gʷḗn ǵénh₁eti.

woman.NOM give.birth.PRS.3SG

“The woman gives birth.”

A pedagogical reconstruction. Verbal stem formation is shown schematically, and the sentence is not directly attested.

Receipts

Sources and cautions

The modern English examples include inherited Germanic vocabulary and learned borrowings from Latin and Greek; the diagram keeps those routes separate.

Wiktionary: reconstructed PIE *ǵenh₁- and references