ഹാരം words

ഹാരം by itself means garland. But when you add differernt prefixes to it, you get words with wildly different meanings.

For example,
ആഹാരം = food
ഉപഹാരം = gift
അപഹാരം = theft

Can you think of other such words?

Solution to the Riddle

Umesh is right. The correct answer is വാരണം.

Interestingly വാരണം comes from വാരണ which means obstruction. Elephants were used in war as obstructions.

വാണം is the തത്ഭവം of ബാണം, arrow.

രണം is from Sanskrit. It means "that which makes noise", of course, a war does make some noise.

Not sure about വാര. My dictionary says it is of Portuguese origin. Anybody has the details?

A riddle

For a change, here is a riddle:

The answer is a three letter word. Say ABC with the following properties:

ABC means elephant
AB is a unit of measurement
BC means war
AC means rocket

What is the word?

Days of the week

The etymology of the days of the week is quite interesting.

• ഞായര്‍ comes from നേരം (time) which in turn comes from നേര്‍ (straight)
• തിങ്കള്‍ = തിണ്‍് + കള്‍ The root തിണ്‍് means firm. I don't quite know how it relates to the moon.
• ചൊവ്വ is the variant of ചെവ്വ which in turn comes from ചെം meaning 'red
• ബുധന്‍ is from Sanskrit and it means intelligent
• വ്യാഴം No idea. Could it be related to വ്യാളം meaning 'vengeful'?
• വെള്ളി is from വെള്‍്, white
• ശനി is from Sanskrit ശനൈഃ <- ശം that which ameliorates

Thus we have the seven days of the week.

aaab words

With generous from Sanskrit, it is possible to coin (reasonably long) words which contain only one or two alphabets.

Some example
കാകാകാരം = കാക + ആകാരം (in the shape of a crow)
പാപാപാരം = പാപ + അപാരം (sea of sin)

(These words explain the title - aaab words :-)

Can you think of some more?

By the way, you can also use mallu roots for such words. e.g.

നാനാനനന്‍് = നാന്‍ + ആനനന്‍ (four faced) = Brahma

Proverbs?

There is this interesting concept of various ന്യായം in malayalam.

Apparently, these are Sanskrit proverbs.

A couple of interesting ones:

ലൂതാതന്തുന്യായം - (ലൂത = spider, തന്തു = thread). Just as a spider weaves its own thread, makes the web and then destroys it, one person destroying what he himself made.

കൈമുതികന്ന്യായം (കിം ഉത) A rhetoric question that assumes knowledge without saying clearly what is known. E.g. "പിന്നെപ്പറയണമോ?"

കാകതാലീയന്യായം (കാക = crow, താലീയം = fruit of palm) "Post hoc ergo propter hoc" - after this therefore because of this. For example, the crow sat on the palm tree and coincidentally the fruit fell down does not imply that the sitting of the crow caused the fruit to fall down.

Do you know of others?

Fear

Just as നെയ്യ് comes from the Sanskrit സ്നേഹം, the word for fear, പേടി comes from the Sanskrit ഭീഷ് (meaning fearsome). (Such words are called തത്ഭവം )

That might sound like a far cry. But it is not that difficult to see. It is conceivable that ഭീ was transformed to പീ. What about the ഷ? There is this etymological rule that in some words the ഷ gets transformed into a ട. Thus, ഭീഷ് -> പീട് -> പേടി.