Hindi Etymology - Figuring out Linguistic Origins of Hindu Philosophy-1

I have always found it somewhat frustrating that unlike the rich literature available on origins of thousands of words, phrasal verbs and idioms in English, there isn’t much available about origins of Hindi words apart from the Hindi Vyutpatti Kosh (हिंदी व्युत्पत्ति कोश) by Naresh Kumar, a book which I have only seen as mentioned in various bibliographies, but been unable to lay my hand to. It becomes even more ironic  because the original etymological treatise in Sanskrit- Nighantu (निघण्टु) and its follow-up – Nirukta ( निरुक्त ) by Yaskya (यास्क) exists and has been even partially digitized.  Written in 4^th Century BC, and predating Panini’s celebrated  Ashyadhyayi (अष्टाध्यायी) ; the book refers to the etymology of Sanskrit words. Ancient texts quote- “नाम च धातुजमाह निरुकते” – every word is derived from the elemental bases,    and its important to such level, that Nirukta (Etymology)  is considered as one of the 6 Vedangas (limbs of vedas) – its ears: “निरुक्त श्रोत्रमुचयते” (श्रोत्रम : hearing  organ – ear, उच्यते: is said)      

   

There do exist multiple Hindi dictionaries (such as the most celebrated हिन्दी शब्द सागर ) , but a number of them remain error-prone , and as far as etymology goes- their reach is limited.  On that front, one has to  browse through multitude of disparate sources for origin of some words. Another issue with these sources such as blogs or Wikipedia entries is that they are limited to “derivation” of the word from an immediate predecessor rather than a proper etymological reference to the root (धातु) . One can find a few proper entries, in books such as  Shabdon Ka Safar (शब्दों का सफर- the journey of words), but we are yet to find an easily accessible, exhaustive book , for a layman like me who is interested in knowing the origin of Hindi words, especially those which can be used to trace back the origins and literal meanings behind key tenets of Hindu philosophy and mythology.

Even though there was an announcement in 2015 by Indian Govt about an etymological dictionary of Hindi being under work, I guess- it would take its own sweet time to come out.

Following is an attempt to gradually grow, and create through crowdsourcing and power of Google, a collection of interesting stories or trivia associated with the origins of Hindi words and terms – particularly those which feature in Hindu religious discourses. This is my humble effort to keep the flow of a knowledge, which seems to be dying with every passing generation- not only due to onslaught of English  but also because of lack of sources to gain it.

To ensure that this work does also serve a purpose to tell the tale of richness of Hindi language to non-native speakers as well, I am using English as a medium but the purists among you could also jump to the Hindi version of this set of threads.

I would be more than happy to receive feedback, and more importantly- information on the origin of any hindi words that you may know- just one condition- please do pass some legit/ verifiable source about the story being quoted, so that we can maintain the quality of these posts.  

A few basics of Hindi word origins

Basically, the Hindi lexicon comprises of five primary types of words:-

•  तत्सम (tat-sum) words: तत्सम  (तत्/ tat : that  + सम/ sum  :like ) - words that are exactly like those in Sanskrit

•  तद्भव (tat-bhav) words: तद्भव (तत्/ tat : that +  भव/ bhav : became ): words that the Sanskrit or Prakrit words became after they changed form.

• देशज (Deshaj) words:  देशज (दिश: direction + अज : unborn) : words whose origin/ birth is unknown – words which were prevalent in Non-IndoAryan languages such as Dravidian, Santhalese, Tibeto-Burman, Mon-Khmer etc. That is why onomatopoeic words  are also included in this category (Ref: Hindi Vyakaran by Kamta Prasad Guru).  Note the incorrect and yet prevalent translation/ etymology of देशज as native (of  देश/ desh: country)

•  विदेशी (Videshi) words: विदेशी(वि: out of + देशी: native/local ) : words which have made it into Hindi from out of Indian subcontinent- words of Greek,  Chinese, Mongol, Arabic, Persian, Turkic, Latin, Portuguese, English origin).

• संकर (Sankar) words: संकर (सं: together/ with, कर: hands): words formed by two languages going hand in hand- eg. वर्षगाँठ , बस-अड्डा, उड़नतश्तरी

The etymological foundation of any “derived/ loaned” Hindi word is expected to follow one of the following  5 guiding rules of Hindi Tadbhava Shastra:

1. वर्णागम (Varnagama) :  वर्णागम (वर्ण :Letter + आगम: coming in ) - influx of a new consonant / vowel  e.g. From Sanskrit's अश्रु becomes आंसू (tears) in Hindi

2. वर्ण विपर्यय (Varna-Viparyaya): interchange of consonants For instance, the Prakrit word "म्हारा" (Mahara- mine) turns into  हमारा in Hindi. Sanskrit नग्न (Nagna- Naked)  became Hindi नंगा (Nanga). Incidentally the same नग्न  is cognate (cousin word) to  Nogos and then Nogmos in Proto-Indo-European, which gave rise to , through consonant interchange to ancient Greek Gomnos (means nude) , to Gumnos, Gymnos  and its derivative- Gymnasium , because Greek athletes trained naked.

3. स्वर विपर्यय (swar viparyay) interchange of vowels- The Prakrit  मझु(majjhu: me) turns into मुझ (Mujh) in Hindi. Sanskrit अँगुलि (anguli: finger, from अँग : limb i.e. hand + उलि : end) ), जंघा (jangha: thigh)  became  उंगली (ungali ), जांघ (jaangh)  in Hindi respectively.

4. वर्ण विकार (Varna Vikara): change of a consonant- The Sanskrit "Rishi" turns to Prakrit "Isi". Sanskrit "ईदृश (Idrsha)" turns to Prakrit aidiisa through  एतादृश (aitadrish) turns to Hindi ऐसा (aisa: like this)

5. वर्ण नाश (Varna Nasha): deletion of a letter-  Sanskrit स्वर्ण (svarna) – Gold from (सु- su: good+ वर्ण-varna :colour) turns to Hindi  सोन (sona :gold). Sanskrit हस्ती (hasti)- Elephant became हाथी (Hathi) in Hindi. 

Given that this blog would mainly (but not always) pertain to words associated more with Hindu philosophy and mythology- which primarily was written/ developed until 16th century CE (Ramcharit Manas by Tulsidas) , we would encounter mostly तत्सम or तद्भव words, but a healthy mix of देशज components too. 

Wherever possible, I'd try to provide the journey of these words and the related offshoots, leading to word formations within Indian or other languages. Hopefully it would be a journey laced with interesting trivia.