Wednesday, January 16, 2013

തിരികള്‍

The title may remind you of wicks of a candle. But this topic is about people.

I was amazed to find out (from my trusty ശബ്ദതാരാവലി of course) that തിരി  is a തദ്ഭവം of ശ്രീ.

Suddenly, a lot of designations that end in തിരി made a lot of sense. Here are some. 

കോനാതിരി = കോന്‍ (king) + തിരി  king
നമ്പൂതിരി = നമ്പി  + തിരി     The root നമ്പുക means to believe. 
എമ്പ്രാന്തിരി = എമ്പ്രാന്‍ + തിരി = എന്‍ + പുരാന്‍ (lord) + തിരി 
ഭട്ടതിരി = ഭട്ട (lord) + തിരി 

I couldn't find the etymology for സാമൂതിരി. What does the സാമൂ root mean?

Do you know of other -തിരി words?


4 comments:

  1. samuthiri is short for samudrathiri

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  2. Thanks mit!

    (Sorry I didn't look at the comments for some time.)

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  3. Hi Vinod,

    On a related note, I think that "Thiru" (തിരു) is also a variant of "Shri" (ശ്രീ) - as both are used to show respect to a person's name.
    I think both Thiru (തിരു) and Thiri (തിരി) evolved from Shri (ശ്രീ).

    Jim

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  4. Hi Jim,

    I agree.

    Which makes me wonder - What used to be the പൂജക പദം before Sanskrit influence? Do you know?

    -Vinod

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