Land and Sea

Sometimes, even simple everyday words have very interesting etymology.

The other day I came across these two.

The common word for sea is കടല്‍. It comes from കട + അല്‍. We see കട in കടക്കുക, to cross. The അല്‍ is the same one what we see in അല്ല no. Thus കടല്‍ means "that which cannot be crossed".

On the other hand, land is കര. Originally, it means shore. It comes from the root കര that we see in കരന്നു പോവുക which means to gnaw, to dissolve, to decay. Of course, the water gnaws at the shore.

Isn't it interesting?

P.S. I finally have a copy of ശബ്ദതാരാവലി - the giant mallu dictionary! The above two tidbits are from that. Keep tuned for more :-)

Cuts and bruises

The other day my mom told me she was using some മുറിവെണ്ണ. I found it a bit funny since we can split മുറിവെണ്ണ in two ways.

One is മുറിവെണ്ണ = മുറി + വെണ്ണ meaning a piece of butter :-)
Of course, the correct split is മുറിവെണ്ണ = മുറിവ് + എണ്ണ meaning oil for a cut.

We see the same root മുറി in other common words like തേങ്ങാമുറി = a half of a coconut. A "room" is called മുറി - of course, you 'cut the house' into rooms.

The mallu word for bruise is പരുക്ക് . I don't really know the etymology of that. May be it is related to പരുപരുത്ത, meaning "rough". Perhaps, പരുക്ക് refers to the scar left behind after a bruise. Any ideas?

Can you drink with your feet?

There are a number of words that use one-letter suffixes to create new meanings. Invariably, most of these came from Sanskrit.

പം means 'That which drinks'. Thus we have ദ്വിപം 'that which drinks twice' or an elephant. (Of course, it first 'drinks' into its trunk and then drinks into its mouth :-) Similarly we have പാദപം 'that which drinks with its feet' or a tree.

ജം is another common suffix. It means 'that which is born from'. For example, ജലജം 'that which is born of water' or a lotus.

ദം means 'that which gives'. Hence ജലദം 'that which gives water' or a cloud.

ഗം means 'that which goes or that which goes through or by'. For example, ഖഗം 'that which goes through the sky (ഖ)' or a bird. ഉരഗം 'that which goes using its body' or a snake.

There are also some other lesser known one-letter suffixes even though they are part of some common words. An example is ത്രം which means, 'that which protects from'. We see it in the common word പുത്രന്‍ meaning 'one who protects from പു (one of the hells)'. (I think the idea was that having a son born is so lucky it will protect you from the hell പു ). Or ആതപത്രം 'that which protects from sunshine' or an umbrella.

ധി means 'a collection of'. As in, വാരിധി 'a collection of water' or ocean.

Of course, we can combine them produce new words. For example:
അബ്ധിജം = അപ് + ധി + ജം = that which is born from a collection of water (അപ് ) = that which is born from sea = lotus

Roots

Ran into the online version of കേരള പാണിനീയം. Especially the one on roots.

Check it out!

The origin of God

In an earlier post, we looked at some of words meaning God. Let's dig in a bit deeper.

Most of the current words seem to be derived from Sanskrit.

For example, ദൈവം, ഈശ്വരന്‍ , ഭഗവാന്‍ etc. comes from the Sankrit roots.

There is an "older" word for God - ആണ്ടവന്‍ This word does not appear in Gundert's, but a related word does. അണ്ടര്‍ - meaning god. Gundert gives two origins:

• അണ്ഡം (universe) -> അണ്ടം -> അണ്ടര്‍
• അണ്ണ (above) -> അണ്ട -> അണ്ടര്‍
  

Given that this is such an old word, I subscribe more to the second etymology. (അണ്ണ is the same root from which we have അണ്ണന്‍ - elder brother)

I also noticed an interesting connection with another word അണ്ട (young bamboo shoot). Gundert says it comes from ആണ്‍ + തൈ = അണ്ടൈ -> അണ്ട by means of some neat ആദേശസന്ധി. I think this will be a deep, male-centric, etymology for the god-word as well: God is the "Male Shoot" or the male form - the പുരുഷന്‍ - of the godhead.

But somehow this interpretation seems very forced. If there is a word for the the male form, there should be a word for the female form as well - and I don't know of any. Also, the etymology given by Gundert indicates a non-sexist God - especially with the -അര്‍ suffix, as opposed to the -അന്‍ suffix.

Interestingly, one of the tamil words for God is ഇറൈ which also means "above".

Hybrid words

I vaguely recall hearing an (unwritten) rule in mallu says that one should not combine Sanskrit and Tamil roots in the same words. So one would say കല്പലക as opposed to കല്ഫലകം; പൂമെത്ത as opposed to പുഷ്പമെത്ത; ജന്മദിനം as opposed to പിറവിദിനം.

But we do have common words that seem to violate this rule:
കണ്മണി, കണ്മഷി, കാര്‍മേഘം Each of these words is formed from a Tamil and Sanskrit root; and I cannot think of a common alternative that is either pure Tamil or pure Sanskrit.

Which makes me think that the "rule" that I am recalling may not be correct. Or, maybe there are well-defined exceptions to the rule.

What do you think?

Bad words!

All right! It's time for some 'bad' words :-)

The other day I noticed an interesting pattern in the etymology of words denoting bad.

ചീത്ത sounds very related to ചീയുക - to decay
അഴുക്കു comes from അഴുകുക - to decay
കെട്ട comes from കേടാകുക - to go bad, e.g. milk

So, it seems, that originally bad meant not fit for consumption.