Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
noun
A rule of the Proto-Indo-European reconstructed language that states that a labiovelar stop (*kw, *gw, *gwh) dissimilates to an ordinary velar stop (*k, *g, *gh) next to the vowel *u or its corresponding glide *w.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Indo-European-studies
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
The rule is named after an example of such a dissimilation: the Ancient Greek βουκόλος (boukólos, “cowherd”), which is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gwow-kólos, from *gwṓws (“cow”) + *kwól-os (“herder”).
