werh₁-
“to speak, to say”speak, say, word
Root for speaking, yielding English word, Latin verbum, Greek eirein (to say).
Discussion
The PIE root *werh₁- (to speak, to say, to utter formally) produced vocabulary for speech acts across the major branches — connecting the act of speaking to the social authority of the spoken word.
Latin verbum (word — from *werdʰ-om, though some scholars treat this as a separate formation) gave English: verb (the word-class that names actions), verbal (pertaining to words), verbose (using too many words), proverb (pro-verbium, a word put forward — a saying), and adverb (ad-verbium, a word added to the verb). The grammatical term verb — the word for the word-class — is itself a word-word, a meta-linguistic recursion.
Greek eírein (to say, to speak — from *wer- with different ablaut) and the derivative rhḗtōr (ῥήτωρ, "speaker, orator") gave English: rhetoric (the art of speaking), rhetorical, and rheme. The Greek word preserves the PIE root with the initial *w- lost (a regular Greek development).
English word (OE word, from PGmc *wurdą) descends from this root — making word and verb cognates, both from the PIE root for speaking. German Wort (word) confirms the Germanic cognate.
The root connects to the broader PIE speech vocabulary: *weḱ- (to speak — see the voice/vocal family), *sengʷʰ- (to sing), *ḱens- (to proclaim formally), and *deyḱ- (to point out/declare). Each root occupied a different register of vocal production, and *werh₁- appears to have covered the formal, authoritative utterance — the word spoken with social weight.
Notes
Pokorny 1162-1163. English word, verb, proverb, adverb, rhetoric.