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dek-
To take, accept.
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[2.] b. dogma, dogmatic; chionodoxa, Docetism, doxology, heterodox, orthodox, paradox,
from Greek dokein, to appear, seem, think (< "to cause to accept or be accepted").

How did "to cause to accept or be accepted" evolve into to appear, seem, think ?
The connection or relationship escapes me.

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    If you convince someone that A is B (i.e, you cause them to believe it), then they will perceive B when they experience A. And people are very easy to convince; Loftus showed that people's eyewitness memories can be adjusted in any direction desired, just by asking the people different questions about sometfhing they experienced. Just the questions, mind you. – jlawler May 22 '15 at 19:53
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    I think the book you need to read, that will come closest to answering the kinds of questions you're asking here, is Buck's A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages. Its subtitle is "A contribution to the history of ideas", and the first sentence in the introduction is "How do we get our ideas?" It's organized like a thesaurus, around large topics, like "Agriculture, Vegetation" and "Sense Perception". Each chapter has around a hundred meanings, and for each one there is a short history of the parallel developments in all I-E languages. Paperback. – jlawler May 23 '15 at 18:58
  • @jlawler Thanks for the advice. Sorry if my questions forced you to repeat it because I remember seeing it first at linguistics.stackexchange.com/q/12110/5306. In fact, I've acquired that book and am reading through it. But sometimes, I still fail to draw the connection myself. – NNOX Apps May 24 '15 at 3:00
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    Good. Remember to think of metaphor when you experience these failures. Any meaning that doesn't refer directly to the human body and body movements is likely to be metaphorical; you can almost always trace abstract meanings back to some metaphoric extensions. That's because that's all we have -- the only thing humans come equipped with is a body, and that's the only thing you can depend on others to have and understand. So it's the basis for most meaning. Lakoff and Johnson put it nicely. – jlawler May 24 '15 at 14:51
  • @jlawler +1. Many thanks. Should I ask a new question to which you can answer with these helpful comments? They are valuable and would help other readers, but we can leave them as above if preferred. – NNOX Apps May 24 '15 at 18:03
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What semantic notions underlie the PIE root 'dek-' with the Greek 'dokein' (to appear, seem, think) ? : asklinguistics

xarsha_93 12 days ago 

There are still linguistic metaphors in which sight or perception in general is understanding, so if someone convinces you of something you might say "I see what you mean" or the phrases "to see the light / the error of their ways".

It's not a big leap to go from something appearing a certain way, to then being understood or accepted as truth, and then causing to understand or be accepted as truth.

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