ei-

To go. Oldest form *ə₁ei-, zero-grade *ə₁i-.

Derivatives include ambition, perish, sudden, transit, ion, initial, janitor, and January.

1. Full-grade form *ei-.

a. adit, ambient, ambition, circuit, coitus, comitia, exit, introit, issue, obituary, perish, praetor, preterit, sedition, subito, sudden, trance, transient, transit, transitive, from Latin īre, to go;

b. ion; anion, cation, dysprosium, from Greek ienai, to go;

c. Ramayana, from Sanskrit eti, he goes (< Indo-Iranian *ai-ti), and abstract noun ayanam, a going, way.

2. Suffixed zero-grade form *i-t-.

a. Further suffixed form *i-t-yo-. commence, initial, initiate, from Latin initium, entrance, beginning (in-, in; see en);

b. count², county; concomitant, constable, viscount, from Latin comes (stem comit-), companion (< “one who goes with another” com-, with; see kom).

3. Suffixed form *i-ter. errant, eyre, itinerant, itinerary, from Latin iter, journey.

4. Extended form *yā- (< *ə₁yaə₂-, colored from earlier *ə₁yeə₂-) in suffixed forms *yā-no-, *yā-nu-.

a. janitor, January, Janus, from Latin iānus, archway, and Iānus, god of doors and of the beginning of a year;

b. Hinayana, Mahayana, from Sanskrit yānam, way (in Buddhism, “mode of knowledge,” “vehicle”).

 

[Pokorny 1. ei- 293.]

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