Meanings
- Indo European studiesdatedIndo-European (a major language family)
- Indo European studiesdatedProto-Indo-European (a hypothetical language)
- Indo European studiesPre-Germanic Proto-Indo-European.
- Indo European studiesdatednot comparableIndo-European.
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveof or relating to the Indo-European language family
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Coined by Dano-French geographer Conrad Malte-Brun in 1810 (as langues indo-germaniques) and popularized in German (as indogermanisch/Indogermanisch), especially following J. Klaproth's 1823 Asia polyglotta. At the time the term was coined, the Celtic languages were not yet considered Indo-European, and the Tocharian languages were not yet discovered; even after the inclusion of Celtic, Germanic remains the northwesternmost family (thanks to Icelandic). By surface analysis, Indo- + Germanic.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Indo-Germanic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Indo-Germanic
“Indo-Germanic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Indo-Germanic. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Indo-Germanic,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Indo-Germanic.
Source: Indo-Germanic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.