wen-
“to desire, to strive for, to love”desire/love
PIE root meaning to desire, strive for, or love. Source of English "win," "wish," Latin Venus, and words for desire.
Discussion
*wen- is a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to desire," "to strive for," or "to love," one of the richest roots for tracing the PIE vocabulary of desire and aspiration.
In Latin, the root produced Venus, the goddess of love, and the adjective venerabilis ("worthy of reverence"), giving English "venerate," "venereal," and "venial." Latin venāri ("to hunt") may also derive from this root, connecting desire to the pursuit of quarry.
In Germanic, *wen- yields a wide semantic spread. English "win" (Old English winnan, "to strive, to struggle") preserves the sense of striving, while "wish" (Old English wȳscan) maintains the desire meaning. "Wont" (accustomed) and "wean" may also connect to this root through the idea of accustoming oneself to what one desires.
Sanskrit vanóti ("to desire, to win") and vánas- ("desire") faithfully reflect the root. Old Irish fine ("kinship group") may derive from the sense of those bound by mutual love.
The semantic trajectory from desiring to striving to winning illustrates how PIE vocabulary encoded the full arc of motivated action: wanting something, working toward it, and achieving it.
Notes
Source of Latin "venus" (love), English "win", "wish". Core desiderative root.