keh₂p-
“to seize, grasp”Source of Latin capere, English capture, capable, accept
Root for grasping and seizing, one of the most productive PIE roots via Latin capere.
Discussion
The Proto-Indo-European root *keh₂p- meant "to seize, to grasp, to take hold of" and is one of the most important roots for understanding English vocabulary derived from both Germanic and Latin sources. The laryngeal *h₂ coloured the vowel and contributed to the a-quality visible in Latin derivatives. The root expresses the fundamental human action of grasping, and its descendants range from the everyday to the abstract.
In Germanic, the initial *k remained (Grimm's Law converted it to *h in most environments), and the root produced Old English habban "to have" — modern English have. The connection between "grasping" and "having" is semantically transparent: to have is to hold, to possess what one has seized. This makes have one of the most ancient and fundamental verbs in English, tracing its meaning back thousands of years to the physical act of clutching.
Latin capere "to take, to seize" is the principal learned source, and its productivity in English is extraordinary: capable (able to grasp or hold), capture (the act of seizing), captive, caption, accept (to take to oneself), conceive (to take in, hence to become pregnant or to form an idea), deceive (to take wrongly), perceive (to take thoroughly), receive, recipe (literally "take!", an imperative), occupy, and participate. The Latin noun caput "head" (the part one seizes to capture an enemy) may also connect, though this is debated.
Greek has no clearly established reflex, though some scholars have proposed connections. The root is primarily a western Indo-European feature, prominent in Italic and Germanic.
The dual inheritance of *keh₂p- in English — the native Germanic have alongside dozens of Latin-derived words in cap-, cip-, ceiv-, and cept- — makes it one of the richest sources of English vocabulary. The gap between the plain monosyllable have and the polysyllabic capture, perceive, and conceive belies their common origin in a single Proto-Indo-European gesture of the hand.