Quote for the day!

ഉന്തുന്തുന്തുന്തുന്തുന്തുന്തുന്തുന്തുന്തുന്തു-
ന്തുന്തുന്തുന്തുന്തുന്തുന്താളെയുന്തു്

(According to legend, the very first couplet in
മഞ്ജരി inspired by which കൃഷ്ണഗാഥ was written.)

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Trees and Umbrellas


In the previous post I had asked about the compound word: പാദപദാതപത്രം. It can be decomposed as follows:


പാദപം = tree (പാദ + പം = that which drinks with feet)
ദം = given by
ആതപം = ആ + തപം = hot sunlight
ത്രം = that which obstructs
ആതപത്രം = umbrella

Thus the words means an umbrella given by a tree!
(I didn't have any story in mind when I posed this question - just the alternating പ and ത sounds in the word.)



2 comments:

Quite interested said...

Hellow Vinod
I'm quite interested in entomology of words especially of 2 languages i speak English and Malayalam. I was reading about the entomology of the word fox and wiki explained a link about a Proto-Indo-European origin from puk(tail) and links it to sanskrit puchcha(tail). My question is: does that explain poochcha(cat) in malayalam?

Vinod said...

Sorry, I saw this very late.

In ശബ്ദതാരാവലി it says the origin is from പൂച്ചുന്നത് , one that scratches, pinches with the claw, etc.