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ArchivesRe: what is the real meaning of my name?
in reply to a message by Praveetha
praveetha is a South Indian English transliteration of what I will write here as pravItA.
The root vI signifies motion, usually as an eager approach towards a friend or enemy; or to set in motion, arouse, impel etc., and may be related to Germanic weiden. The element pra, meaning in front of or away or distant and cognate with English fore, when added to verbs of motion, intensifies the going forth aspect. pra-vI is to go forth, strive after, attack, enter into, impregnate or fertilize, and animate. pravIta and pravItA are the masculine and feminine forms of the past participle, and usually means impregnated (e.g. with truth or life).
Of course, a lot of other meanings are possible, but I went for the one that actually seems to have been used all the way back to the Rig veda. Here are just two examples:
There is a separate root vye meaning to clothe. With the prefixes upa- (towards, near etc., cognate with Germanic ob-), ni- (down etc., cognate with an element in English beneath) and pra- it specializes to wearing of the sacred thread, and pravIta could mean one clothed in the sacred thread or can mean the sacred thread itself, but I do not know of an actual attestation of that word in the former meaning. pravItin (-I in the nominative case) does mean one wearing the sacred thread.
Finally, there is an i/ay meaning to go (with emphasis on the arrival or appearance) which is also recognizable in Slavic idu and Latin iter. The prefix vi of uncertain etymology, but possibly related to dvi meaning and cognate with two, means apart, about, to and fro etc. vi-i means to scatter or be lost, and vIta means lost, disappeared, free. In principle, a pravIta can be derived from this, though again that is unattested as far as I know.
The root vI signifies motion, usually as an eager approach towards a friend or enemy; or to set in motion, arouse, impel etc., and may be related to Germanic weiden. The element pra, meaning in front of or away or distant and cognate with English fore, when added to verbs of motion, intensifies the going forth aspect. pra-vI is to go forth, strive after, attack, enter into, impregnate or fertilize, and animate. pravIta and pravItA are the masculine and feminine forms of the past participle, and usually means impregnated (e.g. with truth or life).
Of course, a lot of other meanings are possible, but I went for the one that actually seems to have been used all the way back to the Rig veda. Here are just two examples:
There is a separate root vye meaning to clothe. With the prefixes upa- (towards, near etc., cognate with Germanic ob-), ni- (down etc., cognate with an element in English beneath) and pra- it specializes to wearing of the sacred thread, and pravIta could mean one clothed in the sacred thread or can mean the sacred thread itself, but I do not know of an actual attestation of that word in the former meaning. pravItin (-I in the nominative case) does mean one wearing the sacred thread.
Finally, there is an i/ay meaning to go (with emphasis on the arrival or appearance) which is also recognizable in Slavic idu and Latin iter. The prefix vi of uncertain etymology, but possibly related to dvi meaning and cognate with two, means apart, about, to and fro etc. vi-i means to scatter or be lost, and vIta means lost, disappeared, free. In principle, a pravIta can be derived from this, though again that is unattested as far as I know.
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