ǵew-
“to taste, to enjoy”taste, enjoy, relish
Root for tasting/enjoying, yielding Greek geuomai, Latin gustare.
Discussion
The PIE root *ǵew- (to taste, to enjoy, to choose by tasting) produced vocabulary that connects the physical act of tasting with the aesthetic act of choosing — as if to taste IS to judge, and to enjoy IS to select.
Latin gustāre (to taste) and the noun gustus (taste, flavour) continue the root directly: gusto (hearty enjoyment — originally the pleasure of tasting), gust (a sudden burst — possibly from the "rushing" sense of eager tasting, though this etymology is debated), gustatory (pertaining to the sense of taste), and disgust (dis-gustāre, "bad-taste" — revulsion conceived as the opposite of pleasant tasting).
Greek geúomai (γεύομαι, "I taste, I enjoy") preserves the root in the Hellenic branch.
English choose (OE cēosan, from PGmc *keusaną) may descend from this root, though the connection is debated. If correct, the semantic chain taste → evaluate → select → choose encodes the PIE conception of decision-making as a form of sensory discrimination: you taste the options and pick the one you prefer. German kiesen (to choose — archaic) and the related erkiesen (to select, to elect) support the Germanic connection.
Sanskrit juṣáte ("he enjoys, he takes pleasure in") and the related joṣa- (pleasure, satisfaction) confirm the Indo-Iranian reflex.
The root's conceptual contribution is the equation of tasting with judging — an equation preserved in English taste ("she has good taste in music") where the sensory verb has become the standard word for aesthetic discrimination. The PIE speakers who named the act of tasting apparently recognised that all evaluation begins in the mouth.
Notes
Pokorny 399-400. Overlaps with *ghews-.