deyk-
“to throw, to build a wall”throw, build, show
Root for building/throwing, yielding Latin dicere, Greek deiknunai, Sanskrit dis.
Discussion
The PIE root *deyk- (to throw, to cast — extended to building a wall from thrown/stacked material) produced a surprising family connecting the physical act of throwing to the construction of walls and fortifications.
Latin dīcāre (to dedicate, to proclaim — from an original sense of "throwing" a declaration) may be connected, though this is debated. More securely, Greek teîkhos (τεῖχος, "wall, fortification") derives from the root through the concept of a wall built from thrown/stacked material — mud-brick construction, where clay is thrown into molds and stacked. The derivative polyteikhos ("many-walled") described heavily fortified cities.
English dough (OE dāg, "kneaded mass" — something thrown/worked by hand) continues the root through the Germanic branch, connecting the throwing gesture to the manipulation of raw material. The word dairy (from OE dǣge, "kneader" — a dairymaid was originally a bread-kneader) may be related.
The semantic chain throw → mold → build encodes an ancient construction technique: walls were built by throwing clay, mud-bricks were formed by throwing clay into molds, and fortifications were raised from these thrown/molded materials. The PIE root captures the moment when throwing became building.
Notes
Pokorny 188-189.