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ArchivesRe: meaning and history of name
in reply to a message by PRATEEK
Sorry ... there is little available history of name usage in India, and I do not know what you mean by the significance of the name.
However, the word pratIka is very old: the origin is from the prefix prati, with cognates in Greek, expressing a symmetric relation: `in return', against, or towards, and often used to introduce similies; attached to the verbal anc/ac (the n is palatal and the c is ch as in chair) to curve, bend (with related meanings like bend toward is to honour, request, etc.), go, unfold etc. Together pratyanc means turning towards or facing, coming (as opposed to going), coming from behind, be equal to or match for, turning the back, moving opposite, and, since from ancient times in the north Indian languages, front and East form related semantic clusters, it also meant move in a westerly direction, and from a human universal (almost: there is a tribe in South America which is somewhat of an exception, but there are other explanations) semantic clustering of past with back, it also means in the past. A similar semantic shift gives turned inward, inner, or interior.
pratIka, the noun from that means turned or directed inward or looking at, or reversed or adverse or difficult, but also the thing looked at (i.e. the exterior or surface), outward form, shape, face, or a symbol. This last meaning gives rise to elaborations like a copy, the face, the first something by which something is recognized or referred to, most specifically the first part of the first word, or most generally a part or a limb.
I think symbol is probably a good enough translation of its most common meaning today (though the senses of opposition and difficulty are recognizable by the educated, and the relation to pratyanc and the relation of that to west, back, etc. is also known). It has been used as a name in the purANas which were finalized about a 1000 years back. The word itself (in the sense of exterior or surface) has been used all the way back in the Rig Veda, more than 3000 years back.
However, the word pratIka is very old: the origin is from the prefix prati, with cognates in Greek, expressing a symmetric relation: `in return', against, or towards, and often used to introduce similies; attached to the verbal anc/ac (the n is palatal and the c is ch as in chair) to curve, bend (with related meanings like bend toward is to honour, request, etc.), go, unfold etc. Together pratyanc means turning towards or facing, coming (as opposed to going), coming from behind, be equal to or match for, turning the back, moving opposite, and, since from ancient times in the north Indian languages, front and East form related semantic clusters, it also meant move in a westerly direction, and from a human universal (almost: there is a tribe in South America which is somewhat of an exception, but there are other explanations) semantic clustering of past with back, it also means in the past. A similar semantic shift gives turned inward, inner, or interior.
pratIka, the noun from that means turned or directed inward or looking at, or reversed or adverse or difficult, but also the thing looked at (i.e. the exterior or surface), outward form, shape, face, or a symbol. This last meaning gives rise to elaborations like a copy, the face, the first something by which something is recognized or referred to, most specifically the first part of the first word, or most generally a part or a limb.
I think symbol is probably a good enough translation of its most common meaning today (though the senses of opposition and difficulty are recognizable by the educated, and the relation to pratyanc and the relation of that to west, back, etc. is also known). It has been used as a name in the purANas which were finalized about a 1000 years back. The word itself (in the sense of exterior or surface) has been used all the way back in the Rig Veda, more than 3000 years back.
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