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ArchivesRe: the name Kant
in reply to a message by mmishra
Short words from different languages may have no etymological connections: this is quite common. Somewhere I heard Kant is a toponymic, from a word meaning edge or corner: this is unrelated to the Sanskrit name element Kant.
The Sanskrit word kAnta (where the last -a is silent in many, but not all, modern Indian languages) is from the incomplete root kam meaning to love or desire; and merely means beloved, not beloved by the moon. It is a very common second element of first names, with the first element usually providing the subject, who the bearer is loved by. Most Indians do not have true middle names. kam has Indoeuropean cognates (as in Latin comis, also in Gaelic and Armenian), but offhand I cannot recall any Germanic form.
The Sanskrit word kAnta (where the last -a is silent in many, but not all, modern Indian languages) is from the incomplete root kam meaning to love or desire; and merely means beloved, not beloved by the moon. It is a very common second element of first names, with the first element usually providing the subject, who the bearer is loved by. Most Indians do not have true middle names. kam has Indoeuropean cognates (as in Latin comis, also in Gaelic and Armenian), but offhand I cannot recall any Germanic form.
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