Grimm's law Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a sound law relating German consonants and consonants in other Indo-European languages

WordNet

Definitions
  1. (Philol.), a statement (propounded by the German philologist Jacob Grimm) of certain regular changes which the primitive Indo-European mute consonants, so-called (most plainly seen in Sanskrit and, with some changes, in Greek and Latin), have undergone in the Teutonic languages. Examples: Skr. bhatr, L. frater, E. brother, G. bruder; L. tres, E. three, G. drei, Skr. go, E. cow, G. kuh; Skr. dha to put, Gr. ti-qe`-nai, E. do, OHG, tuon, G. thun.

Webster 1913