h₂eḱru-
“tear, weeping”tear, weep
Root for tears, yielding Latin lacrima, Greek dakryon, English tear (drop).
Discussion
The root *h₂eḱru- designated the tear — the physical drop produced by weeping — and its most famous descendant is Latin lacrima, source of English lachrymose and lachrymal. The phonological development from *h₂eḱru- to lacrima involved metathesis and the Latin treatment of the initial laryngeal. The older Latin form dacruma stands closer to the Greek cognate dakry (δάκρυ), which descends regularly from the proto-form. Greek dakry appears in Homer with a directness suggesting the word carried the same emotional weight in the earliest poetry as today. The Germanic branch preserves reflexes in Old English tæhher and English tear, though the precise phonological pathway is debated. Pokorny (23) reconstructed the root. The root *h₂eḱru- belongs to a small cluster of PIE vocabulary for grief, alongside *h₁wep- ("to weep") — a pairing suggesting the proto-language distinguished between the act of weeping and the physical product, the tear itself.
Notes
Pokorny 23. English tear (from eye), lacrimal, lacrimose.