The most constant epithet associated with * Dyēus is 'father' ( *ph 2tḗr). While the Greek goddess Pandeia or Pandia ( Greek: Πανδία, Πανδεία, 'all brightness') may have been another name for the Moon Goddess Selene, her name still preserves the root *di-/ *dei-, meaning 'to shine, be bright'. The noun * deynos ('day'), interpreted as a back-formation of * deywós, has descendant cognates in Vedic Sanskrit divé-dive ('day by day'), Latin Dies, goddess of the day and counterpart to Greek Hemera, Hittite siwat ('day'), Palaic Tīyat- ('Sun, day'), Ancient Greek endios ('midday'), Old Armenian tiw (տիւ, 'bright day'), Old Irish noenden ('nine-day period'), Welsh heddyw ('today'), or Slavic Poludnitsa ('Lady Midday'). The suffix-derivative *diwyós ('divine') is also attested in Latin, Greek and Sanskrit. In classic Indo-European, associated with the late Khvalynsk culture (3900–3500), *Dyēus also had the meaning of 'Heaven', whereas it denoted 'god' in general (or the Sun-god in particular) in the Anatolian tradition. Ī vṛddhi-derivative appears in * deywós ('celestial'), the common word for 'god' in Proto-Indo-European.

Cognates in Indo-European languages revolving around the concepts of 'day', 'sky' and 'deity' and sharing the root *dyeu- as an etymon suggest that Dyēus was the vast and bright sky of the day conceived as a divine entity, such as Sanskrit dyumán- 'heavenly, shining, radiant'. The divine name *Dyēus stems from the root *dyeu-, denoting the 'diurnal sky' or the 'brightness of the day' (in contrast to the darkness of the night), ultimately deriving from * di or dei- ('to shine, be bright').

Descendants of darkness sub indo