PIE
- noun
- /pi/
- Specialized
- Linguists study how sounds and grammar evolved from the ancient pie spoken thousands of years ago.
Examples
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Proto-Indo-European is considered the pie of languages from which many modern languages descend.
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Examples are southern-style hush puppies, Boston cream pie, and New York-style cheesecake.
Academic text (1992) -
At the last minute, she'd made a pumpkin pie to ease her conscience.
Fiction book (1994) -
I want two chocolate cream pies and two cups of coffee, please.
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I have not investigated their etymologies, nor the PIE roots they come from, nor the variety of senses they have.
Academic text (2006) -
The relationship between strengths and placement was plotted in a series of pie charts across symptom and risk levels.
Academic text (2001) -
The documentary explained the significance of pie as the foundation for understanding Indo-European linguistics.
Synonyms
An ancestor language of many European and Asian languages that people think was spoken long before writing began
An ancient language that experts think was the common ancestor of many European and Asian languages
Idioms
- Informal
Different parts of life have their own good things to enjoy one at a time
Compounds
A pastry filled with pieces of beef and kidneys, often cooked in gravy
- US
A sweet pie that uses the cooked, mashed part of a winter vegetable like pumpkin
Surface Forms
Etymology
PIE stands for Proto-Indo-European, the very old 'mother' language that is the common ancestor of many modern languages such as English, Hindi and Spanish. A helpful way to remember this is that basic words like 'mother' appear in many languages because they come from Proto-Indo-European, so PIE is the shared source of those languages.