deh₃-
“to give, to bestow”Give, bestow, grant
A primary PIE verbal root meaning "to give," with a reduplicated present *dé-dh₃-ti preserved in both Greek dídōmi and Sanskrit dádāti. Also continued in Latin dare, Old Church Slavonic dati, and Lithuanian dúoti.
Discussion
The root *deh₃- ("to give") is one of the best-attested primary verbal roots in PIE, listed in Pokorny (IEW 223–225), Rix (LIV² s.v. *deh₃-), and treated extensively by Beekes, Watkins, and Mallory and Adams (Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, 1997). The laryngeal *h₃ is reconstructed on the basis of o-colouring in certain ablaut grades and the long vowel reflexes in daughter languages. The reduplicated present *dé-dh₃-ti is independently preserved in Greek dídōmi (δίδωμι) and Sanskrit dádāti, confirming this morphological pattern for the proto-language.
Latin dare ("to give"), with its reduplicated perfect dedī, continues the root with standard Italic phonological development. The initial *d- is retained unchanged; the long vowel in dare reflects the regular Latin outcome of the root with *eh₃. The productivity of dare in Latin and its Romance descendants generated an extensive derivative vocabulary: datum ("a thing given"), dōnum ("gift," from the o-grade *doh₃-no-), trāditiō ("a handing over"), mandāre ("to entrust," from manus + dare), and the compound reddere ("to give back"), whence English render through Vulgar Latin and Old French.
Greek dídōmi preserves the reduplicated present stem *dé-dh₃-ti with full transparency. The nominal derivative dósis ("a giving, a dose") and the neuter dōron (δῶρον, "gift"), from the o-grade, are productive in Greek compound formation: Theodōros ("gift of god"), Pandōra ("all gifts"), and antídoton ("given against," i.e., antidote). Beekes (s.v. δίδωμι) confirms the reconstruction and notes the archaic character of the reduplicated present within the Greek verbal system.
Sanskrit dádāti ("gives") matches the Greek form morpheme by morpheme: both show the reduplication *de-, the root *deh₃-, and the athematic ending *-ti. The nominal derivative dā́na ("gift, charity") became a central term in Hindu and Buddhist ethical vocabulary. Avestan dadāiti provides the expected Iranian cognate. In the Balto-Slavic branch, Old Church Slavonic dati ("to give"), Russian datʹ, and Lithuanian dúoti continue the root without significant irregularity.
The semantic stability of *deh₃- across all branches is a point of note in comparative lexicology. Unlike many PIE roots that undergo substantial semantic drift, *deh₃- maintains the core meaning "to give" in virtually every attested continuation. Szemerényi (1996) and Benveniste (1969) both remark on this stability, which contrasts with the extensive polysemy found in roots such as *dʰeh₁- ("to put, to do, to make") and *steh₂- ("to stand"). The uniformity of the semantic reflex makes *deh₃- one of the most reliable cognate sets for demonstrating the comparative method in introductory treatments.
Laryngeal Analysis
Contains h₃, which colours preceding *e to *o.
Ablaut
Full grade *deh₃-, zero grade *dh₃-, reduplicated *dédh₃-.