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Help[Facts] Re: meaning of Anvita
in reply to a message by ttbliss
When asking about names, it always helps if you can specify as much as you can about the cultural or religious background of the name.
There is a common Sanskrit prefix anu whose primary meaning was `following', `along with', `towards', `near' etc. The verbal root i of course is an Indoeuropean root with cognates all over and means, `to go'. The combination anu + i (which becomes anvi, the v is the unaspirated labio-dental: with less breath out than in English v) is seen already in the Rgveda in the senses of obtain (a part), imitate, and go along, but it means, more generally, to join, reach, seek, follow, be guided by, The -ta is the standard suffix for past participle. The dictionary lists that anvita means gone along with, joined, attended, endowed with, possesing, or understood. I only knew the as a technical term in grammar, but as a feminine name, there is probably a long -A suffix marking that gender. The original stress in anu was on the first syllable, though verbal forms often lost the primary stress in the unseparated prefix.
I think there was a trend in India to name young girls as aCCitA where the CC stands for a joint consonantal sound, the lowercase vowels are short, the uppercase long, and the t is dental (and name boys as aCCita). This followed a phase where aCitA (i.e. a single consonant) was favoured. Thus, names like amitA sound slightly dated compared to arpitA, and I guess anvitA was seen as a novel possibility following this pattern.
There is a common Sanskrit prefix anu whose primary meaning was `following', `along with', `towards', `near' etc. The verbal root i of course is an Indoeuropean root with cognates all over and means, `to go'. The combination anu + i (which becomes anvi, the v is the unaspirated labio-dental: with less breath out than in English v) is seen already in the Rgveda in the senses of obtain (a part), imitate, and go along, but it means, more generally, to join, reach, seek, follow, be guided by, The -ta is the standard suffix for past participle. The dictionary lists that anvita means gone along with, joined, attended, endowed with, possesing, or understood. I only knew the as a technical term in grammar, but as a feminine name, there is probably a long -A suffix marking that gender. The original stress in anu was on the first syllable, though verbal forms often lost the primary stress in the unseparated prefix.
I think there was a trend in India to name young girls as aCCitA where the CC stands for a joint consonantal sound, the lowercase vowels are short, the uppercase long, and the t is dental (and name boys as aCCita). This followed a phase where aCitA (i.e. a single consonant) was favoured. Thus, names like amitA sound slightly dated compared to arpitA, and I guess anvitA was seen as a novel possibility following this pattern.
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