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ArchivesRe: Request information about name
in reply to a message by chris7549
There is an Ajay of Sanskrit origin. The root ji, attested from vedic times, means to win (in a fight, in a hunt etc; related to jyA, to oppress), and jaYa (both the -a's were originally short mid central schwas, but today pronounciation in most North Indian descendant languages drops the final -a, and in a few an initial a- can become slightly open, back and rounded, whereas medial -a- may be this or mid-closed instead) means victory. a- (with an epenthetic -n- before a following vowel) is a negative prefix which can be reconstructed back to Indoeuropean.
The joining of the negative particle to the word could either negate the sense (thus ajay would mean defeat) or could mean `someone who has not been' something, i.e. un- won over. Initially (in the vedic language) stress disambiguated the two (the latter meaning had the stress on the a-), but in later language (classical sanskrit or later), stress ceased to be a morphological feature, and the two became homonyms.
In the sense of unvanquished, ajay has been used as a name (of the protector viSNu among the hindu trinity, also attested as a male name from antiquity, also of a river), as has been the feminine ajayA (long front open -A; though length lost in a few modern Indian languages) which is the name of a goddess symbolizing protective power, durgA, or the goddess of illusion, mAYA.
The joining of the negative particle to the word could either negate the sense (thus ajay would mean defeat) or could mean `someone who has not been' something, i.e. un- won over. Initially (in the vedic language) stress disambiguated the two (the latter meaning had the stress on the a-), but in later language (classical sanskrit or later), stress ceased to be a morphological feature, and the two became homonyms.
In the sense of unvanquished, ajay has been used as a name (of the protector viSNu among the hindu trinity, also attested as a male name from antiquity, also of a river), as has been the feminine ajayA (long front open -A; though length lost in a few modern Indian languages) which is the name of a goddess symbolizing protective power, durgA, or the goddess of illusion, mAYA.
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