gʷenh₂-
“to strike, kill”Source of Greek phonos, English bane, blight
Root for striking fatally, yielding Greek phonos (murder) and English bane.
Discussion
The PIE root *gʷenh₂- (to strike, to slay, to kill) produced the vocabulary of lethal violence across the major branches — one of the most grimly productive roots in the reconstructed lexicon.
Greek theínein (θείνειν, "to strike, to slay") and the derivative -phonos (-φόνος, "killing") continue the root: homophone has nothing to do with killing, but the combining form -phon- in other compounds does — though the Greek "killing" form and the Greek "sound" form (phōnē) are from different roots. More securely, the compound autókhthōn relates through the striking/establishing sense.
Sanskrit hánti ("he strikes, he kills") and the related ghná- ("killing, slaying") preserve the Indo-Iranian reflex transparently. The Vedic warrior-god Indra is described with forms of this root.
English bane (OE bana, "slayer, murderer, cause of death" — from PGmc *banō) descends from this root through the Germanic branch. The modern sense of "a cause of ruin" (the bane of my existence) weakened from the original "killer." Wolfsbane (the poisonous plant) preserves the lethal sense: a plant that kills wolves.
Old Irish gonim ("I slay, I wound") provides the Celtic reflex. Lithuanian gìnti ("to drive, to defend" — a semantic shift from striking to the defensive striking that wards off attackers) shows how violence can generate both offensive and defensive vocabulary from the same root.
The English word gun may be distantly connected through the Scandinavian personal name Gunnhildr ("war-battle"), though this etymology is debated. If correct, the most lethal modern weapon takes its name from a PIE root for striking.