peh₃-

The root *peh₃- ("to drink") is securely reconstructed on the basis of regular correspondences across multiple branches, with the laryngeal *h₃ responsible for the o-colouring observed in Latin and elsewhere. Latin pōtāre ("to drink") and the earlier bibere (from a reduplicated form *pibere < *pi-ph₃-e-) yield an extensive derivative vocabulary: potion (pōtiō, "a drink"), potable (pōtābilis, "drinkable"), poison (through Old French poison, from Latin pōtiōnem — originally any drink, then specifically a harmful one), potation, and the compound symposium (through Greek, "a drinking together"). The semantic path from "drink" to "poison" via Old French is one of the more frequently cited examples of pejoration in historical linguistics. Greek pī́nō (πίνω, "I drink") continues the root with a nasal-infix present. The noun pósis ("drinking") and the compound sympósion (συμπόσιον, "drinking party") entered Latin and thence English. The symposium in its philosophical sense — a structured intellectual discussion — originates in Plato's dialogue set at a drinking party, where the activity of drinking frames the activity of discourse. Sanskrit pā́ti ("drinks") and the causative pāyáyati ("gives to drink") show regular Indo-Iranian development. The ritual soma-drinking of the R̥gveda employs derivatives of this root extensively. In Balto-Slavic, Lithuanian gerti replaced the inherited verb, but Old Church Slavonic piti ("to drink"), Russian pitʹ, Czech pít, and Polish pić continue the root directly. This is one of the cases where Slavic preserves an archaic form that Baltic has replaced. The relationship between *peh₃- ("to drink") and *h₂ékʷeh₂ ("water") illustrates the PIE vocabulary of sustenance: separate roots for the substance and the act of consuming it, as with *h₁ed- ("to eat") and the various words for food.