dʰe-
“to set down”down/place
PIE root meaning to set down or place. One of the most productive PIE roots, yielding Latin facere, English "do," and Greek títhēmi.
Discussion
*dʰe- (also reconstructed as *dʰeh₁-) is a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to set down" or "to place," one of the most fundamental and productive verbal roots in the proto-language.
Latin facere "to do, to make" (from *dʰh₁-k-) gives an enormous English vocabulary: fact, factory, faculty, fashion, feasible, feature, affair, effect, perfect, sacrifice, and many more. Greek títhēmi "I place" (with reduplication) yields thesis, theme, and thesaurus. Sanskrit dádhāti "places" preserves the reduplicated present.
In Germanic, Old English dōn "to do" (modern English do, deed) reflects the root with Grimm's Law (*dʰ > d). German tun "to do" and Tat "deed" continue the pattern. Lithuanian dė́ti "to put" confirms the Balto-Slavic branch.
The root appears in the compound *ḱred-dʰeh₁- "to believe" (literally "to place one's heart") and in numerous other PIE compound formations. Its extraordinary productivity reflects the centrality of the concept "to place/set/do" in human activity.
Modern descendants include English do, deed, doom ("what is set down"), fact, thesis, theme, and the -fy suffix (from Latin -ficāre).
Notes
Source of English "do" (originally to place). Downward/settling action.