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pon·gee

(pŏn-jē, pŏnjē)

A light, plain-woven fabric, usually of tussah or raw silk.

[Of Chinese origin, perhaps from an earlier Chinese (Mandarin) *běn zhī, homemade fabric : běn, root, base, foundation, original, one's own (from Early Middle Chinese pen') + zhī, to weave, spin (from Middle Chinese tʂiăk, ultimately from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tək; akin to Tibetan ′thag).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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