bʰag-
“to distribute, allot, share”Source of Sanskrit bhaga, Greek phagein, English baksheesh
Root for distributing shares, yielding Sanskrit bhaga (portion/god), Slavic bogъ (god).
Discussion
The PIE root *bʰag- (to distribute, to allot, to share) produced vocabulary for divine apportionment and human enjoyment across the eastern IE branches — a word family that connects the act of dividing portions to the concepts of god, happiness, and destiny.
Sanskrit bhága- ("portion, share, good fortune, the sun god Bhaga") and the related bhaj- ("to distribute, to share, to worship") continue the root in Indo-Iranian. The divine name Bhaga (the god who distributes fortune) is cognate with Old Church Slavonic bogŭ ("god" — Russian bog) — making the Slavic word for God etymologically "the Distributor, the One who allots."
Greek phageîn (φαγεῖν, "to eat, to devour") may continue the root through the concept of consuming one's allotted portion — to eat is to take your share. The derivative -phage/-phagy in scientific vocabulary (bacteriophage, "bacteria-eater"; coprophagy, "dung-eating") preserves the Greek form.
Old Persian baga- ("god, lord") confirms the Iranian reflex, visible in the city name Baghdad ("god-given" or "god's garden"). The Avestan baga- matches the Old Persian form.
The Germanic branch does not clearly continue this root, though some scholars connect Old English gebǣre ("suitable, fitting") to it.
The root's semantic arc — from distributing to divine to fortunate — encodes a theology of cosmic allotment: the gods are the distributors, fortune is what has been distributed, and to be blessed is to have received a good share. The Russian word for God (bog, from *bʰag-) preserves this ancient equation of divinity with generosity.