✣ Word Garden

Proto-Indo-European · 31 August 2026

A word a day week

*weyd-

approximately ‘weyd’ · reconstructed root

  • to see
  • to know

Vision, video, wit, wisdom, and the Vedas share this root, whose descendants include words for both seeing and knowing.

Then → now

The family reunion

*weyd- → Latin vidēre → Latin vīsiō → English vision; *weyd- → Latin videō → English video; *weyd- → Proto-Germanic *witaną → Old English witan → English wit; *weyd- → Sanskrit véda → English Veda
Selected routes, not an exhaustive family tree. Intermediate forms are simplified for a readable first look.
  • ItalicEnglish visionthe act of seeing
  • ItalicEnglish videoI see
  • GermanicEnglish witknow; mental sharpness
  • Indo-AryanEnglish Vedaknowledge

Tiny sentence

*só wódr̥ weydeti.

he.NOM water.ACC see.PRS.3SG

“He sees water.”

A schematic teaching sentence. Case shape, verbal stem, and accent are simplified choices rather than a claim of a uniquely recoverable sentence.

Receipts

Sources and cautions

The semantic bridge from seeing to knowing recurs across the family. Modern English loans such as video arrived through Latin rather than by uninterrupted English inheritance.