h₁wes-tú-
“clothing, raiment”vest, divest, investiture
Abstract from *h₁wes- giving Latin vestis, English vest, divest, investiture, transvestite.
Discussion
The PIE form *h₁wes-tú- (clothing, raiment) is a result noun from the verbal root *h₁wes- (to wear, to clothe, to dress), formed with the suffix *-tú- that creates abstract nouns of action or their results. The literal meaning is "the thing worn" or "the state of being clothed."
Latin vestis (garment, clothing) is the direct continuation and the source of the English word family: vest (originally a garment, now specifically an undergarment or waistcoat), vestment (ceremonial or liturgical clothing), vestibule (originally the entrance hall where Romans changed their outdoor clothing — the "clothing room"), invest (in-vestīre, literally "to clothe in," hence to endow with authority or to commit money — you "clothe" your capital in an enterprise), divest (to unclothe, hence to strip of holdings), and travesty (transvestīre, "to cross-dress," hence a grotesque distortion, something dressed up as what it is not).
The investment metaphor is particularly revealing. To invest originally meant to dress someone in the robes of office — a bishop was invested with his vestments, a knight invested with his armour. The financial sense ("to invest money") is a 17th-century extension of this metaphor: you clothe your money in a venture as you clothe a person in office. Divest reverses the process: to divest is to unclothe, to strip away holdings as you strip away garments.
Greek hénnymi (ἕννυμι, "to put on, to clothe") preserves the verbal root in the Hellenic branch, though the Greek word did not generate the extensive derivative family found in Latin.
Sanskrit váste (he wears, he is clothed) and the noun vāstra- (garment, cloth) continue the root in the Indo-Iranian branch. The Vedic hymns use forms of this root in ritual contexts: the gods are clothed in light, the sacrifice is clothed in prayer.
Hittite waš- (to wear, to put on) provides Anatolian attestation, with the laryngeal *h₁ reflected in the Hittite vowel treatment.
Gothic wasjan (to clothe) and Old Norse verja (to wear, to defend — the conceptual link between clothing and protection is transparent) give the Germanic reflexes. English wear itself descends from Old English werian, from PGmc *wazjaną, from the same PIE root — making wear and vest etymological cousins despite their very different surface appearances.