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I can't seem to find and Indo European root for this word. I'm not even sure if it has indo european origins.

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    I was under the impression that "eu-" is a prefix, approximately "true, good" eukaryote, oi-punk, euthanize, euphoric, heuristic; Not so in Ger. Euter, Eule; Heuropa is still uncertain, as divine names are (I read a word due to which I assumed it meant haven, port of origin but didn't find it noteworthy. Hmmm, *óynos (“single, one”). Eu-kar-yota? Anyway, "ἐΰς" (eǘs, “true”) exists, as in Eukaryota, but it's likewise uncertain.
    – vectory
    Dec 11, 2018 at 2:00
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    There should be a penalty for downvoting a question without commenting. If someone thinks a question is misplaced or bad, he/she should give a reason or suggest an improvement. I am really tired repeating this in every community site.
    – Midas
    Dec 11, 2018 at 5:48
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    @vectory eu does mean good, but this word starts heu (rough breathing) so it would probably have a different etymology
    – b a
    Dec 11, 2018 at 10:45
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    @midas No, there shouldn't. Anonymous voting keeps the stackexchange sites healthy, and there are measures against abusive voting (in either direction, up or down). Not everyone is ready to enter a discussion of their downvote motives.
    – Sir Cornflakes
    Dec 11, 2018 at 10:45
  • @jknappen I wouldn't call that healthy. If you want to increase the quality of feedback and make questions/answers better you should be ready to give your five cents. A downvote without a feedback is nothing worth. In cases of new members, such attitude scares/frustrates them away. This has been a problem in other communities, but I guess this is not the place to discuss this.
    – Midas
    Dec 11, 2018 at 19:43

2 Answers 2

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It's hard to say. According to Beekes Etymological dictionary:

Given the perfective meaning of εὑρίσκω, the aorist εὗρον is probably old. An old perfect seen in εὕρη-κα probably existed next to it. After this, εὑρήσω arose, and the latest member of the paradigm (beside εὑρεθῆναι) was the present εὑρίσκω (quantity of the ι unknown). The aorist εὗρον may be a thematic root formation standing for the augmented ind. *ἔ-ϝρ-ον; on this form, see Vara Emerita 61 (1993): 177-9. The aspiration is perhaps secondary after ἑλεῖν etc. Alternatively, was it a reduplicated aorist *u̯e-u̯r-e/o- from *ue-urh1-e/o-, with dissimilatory loss of the anlauting ϝ- and secondary aspiration, in which case, according to Beckwith Glotta 72 (1994): 24-30, the root-final laryngeal was lost in a reduplicated formation? A reduplicated formation is also found in the OIr. preterite -fúar 'I found' < IE *ue-ur- (pres. fo-gabim ); the pass. -frīth 'inventum est' agrees with *ϝρη- in -ϝέ-ϝρη-κα (> εὕρηκα) as IE *urh1-to-. IE *ureh1-t- has also been supposed in OCS ob-rětъ 'I found'. A full grade * uer- is seen in Arm. gerem (with secondary aorist gerec'i ) 'take prisoner'. Taillardat RPh. 34 (1960): 232-235 assumes *suer-, with *sesure > εὗρε.

Appart from that, he puts a question mark on the origin of the word. In other words, the present IE suggestions are not conclusive.

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The authors of this website consider that it comes from the reconstructed root: *u̯er

source: https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/lex/master/2165

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  • Is that the inverted-breve laryngeal notation again, now on u, What's that from?!?
    – vectory
    Dec 11, 2018 at 1:50
  • Not really, it stands for *w. Depending on rule phonotactics, it could be realized [u] or [w].
    – amegnunsen
    Dec 11, 2018 at 9:27

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