The Sanskrit world cakra चक्र has the following meanings:

1i) The wheel of a carriage.

2ii) The wheel of the Sun’s chariot.

3iii) The wheel of the Time.

The Sanskrit cakra is the origin of a large number of words in different languages.  Today we will explore the journey of the word cakra, how this word traveled to different parts of the world and took different meanings in the languages being spoken there.  Surprisingly, some of the meanings taken by it are completely different from the original one.

Sanskrit čakráš became Tokharin kukal/kokale, a wheel; Greek kuklos, kuklikos; Latin cyclicus, French cyclique and English cyclic, encyclical, encyclic, Late Latin encyclicus, Late Greek enkuklikos (circular).

Greek kuklos, a circle and kukloōn/ kuklōn (I go round, encircle) are the origin the English cyclone, cycle, bicycle, tricycle, cyclic.

English cycle derives from French cycle, from Latin cyclus and Greek kuklos, ring, circle. Thus the English  words encircle, circlet; circuit, circuitous, circular, circularize; circulate, circulatory, circum, circa, circus, search, research are all derived from the Sanskrit cakra. 

Latin circus, a circle becomes circulus (a circus), French cirque and the English circus.

Latin circus with stem circ-  is akin to Greek kirkos, stem kirk-, a ring; akin also to Latin curuus, Middle Latin curvus, curved and therefore CURVE.

Latin circus, circle, yields the circum, in a circle, around, and circa (new world formed is extra, supra).  The word  around becomes ‘about’, especially of dates.

From Latin circum, circa derives the Late Latin circāre, to go around, go about, Old French cercher and French chercher, Middle English cerchen, later serchen (to search), searcher (early French chercheur) and ‘a search’.

Old French cercher has the old/middle French recercher (to research), early French recherche, itself from rechercher, recherché (sought after).

 

Circuit, adopted from Middle French comes from Latin circuīre, to go around or about, circum, around, Middle Latin circuitōsus and English circuitous. circuit.

In this way the English words circle, circular, circulate, circulation, circumcise, circumference, circumnavigate, circumspect, circum-stance, circum-stantial, circumvent are formed.

Circumcise: Latin circumcīsus, to cut around, hence to circumcise; Latin circumcīsiō, circumcīsiōn-, yields English circumcision.

Circumference: Latin circumferentia; circumferential, deferential.

Circumnavigate: Middle Latin circumnavigātus, Latin -nauigāre, to sail around; hence circumnavigation, -navigator, on navigation, navigator.

Circumpose, circumposition.

Circumscribe.

Circumspect: Latin circumspectus,  circumspicere, to look around and about;

circumspectiō, -spectiōn-, yields circumspection (new word formed is SPECTACLE)

Circumstance.

Circumvent, circumvention (new word formed is VENUE).

Circumvolute, circumvolution; circumvolve (new word formed is VOLUBLE)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Vedic Sanatana roots of the Mitanni Empire

Image
Vedic roots of the Mitanni Empire 1. Introduction   The Mittanni empire stretched to the present-day northern Iraq, Syria  and Turke y  flourished around 1500 BCE.  The capital of Mitanni was Washukanni, located on the the River Habur, a tributary of the Euphrates. The Assyrians knew this kingdom as Hanigalbat   (also Khanigalbat, Hani-Rabbat), and the Hittites referred to these people as the Huri and their territory as the land of the Huri (or Hurri) and land of the  Hurrians . To the east, the Mitanni bordered with the Hurrian-speaking Kassites whose territory corresponds to present-day Kurdistan. The lands of the Mitanni in northern Syria bordered eastern Anatolia to its west and extended east as far as Nuzi (present-day Kirkuk, Iraq) and the river Tigris in the east. In the south, it extended from Aleppo across to Mari on the Euphrates to the east.   Its heartland was t...
Read more

German airline Lufthansa derives its name from Sanskrit words lupta लुप्त and haṃsa हंस

Image
  German airline Lufthansa derives its name from Sanskrit words  lupta  लुप्त and  ha ṃ sa  हंस The Sanskrit word lupta  लुप्त  in the sense of highly elevated/disappeared  became  Middle English   lofte  (air, sky, upper region),  Old English   loft / lyft ,   Old Norse   lopt  (upper chamber, attic), Proto Germanic   luftuz  (air / sky) ,  Scots   lift ,  Dutch   lucht  (air),  German   Luft  (air),  and  English   lift ,  loft and  aloft .  L upta  लुप्त   combined with  haṃsa  हंस   ( a swan ) is the name of German airline Lufthansa.  In all these words, the sound change taking place is  pa to fa .
Read more

Origin of the word Ghadr or Gadar.

Image
  Ghadar is a  Punjabi/Urdu word derived from Arabic.   It generally means revolt/rebellion or mutiny.  It is often spelled as Ghadr or Gadar. To find its origin, we have go into the Islamic history.   The battle of Badr in Saudi Arabia was a major military victory that had a great prestige in the minds of the Islamists.   This battle marked a turning point for the early Muslim  community  ( ummah ). Earlier they used to have a somewhat defensive stance toward the local tribes in the region.   Now, after the victory of Badr, their stance was of aggression and expansion. The battle damaged  Meccan  trade and boosted the morale of the  ummah  as a viable force in its pursuit of control of the that area.   With the spread of the Islamists to the other parts of the world, the word Badr used to be associated with the fierce war and pandemonium.   With the passage of time, this word Badr got corrupted and used to be pr...
Read more