werǵ-
“to squeeze, to press”squeeze, strangle, wring
Root for squeezing, yielding English wring, wrong, wrangle, German wurgen (to strangle).
Discussion
The PIE root *werǵ- (to squeeze, to press, to wring out) produced vocabulary for the physical act of compression and its products — connecting the squeezing of fruit to the wringing of cloth to the pressing of boundaries.
English wring (OE wringan, from PGmc *wringaną) continues the root natively — to wring a cloth is to squeeze the liquid from it by twisting. The related wrangle (to press together in argument — to squeeze each other verbally) extends the physical image to debate.
German würgen (to strangle, to choke — to squeeze the throat) preserves the most violent extension. The related Wurst (sausage — the pressed/stuffed meat) names the food product by its manufacturing process: a sausage is etymologically "the squeezed thing."
Lithuanian ver̃žti (to squeeze, to compress) confirms the Baltic reflex.
The root connects to *trewd- (to press, to thrust) and *gnebʰ- (to pinch, to compress) as part of the PIE vocabulary of applied pressure. Where *trewd- emphasised directional pushing and *gnebʰ- emphasised pinching between fingers, *werǵ- emphasised rotational squeezing — the wringing, twisting motion that expels liquid from a solid.
Notes
Pokorny 1154-1155. English wring, wrong, wrangle, anger.