Diverse Indo-Iranian Etymological Notes.

• Author: HAMP, ERIC P.

INDO-ARYAN DEVERBAL AGENTIVES IN I-E *-EN-

I have recently discussed the sparse attestation of the Indo-European class of nomina agentis derived in [-en-.sup.*] from verbal bases, [1] a class which is poorly represented in the handbooks, and to which I intend to turn soon again. I propose to gather together here some scattered remains of this class in the modern Indo-Aryan languages; the forms are arrayed under their CDIAL etyma (R. L. Turner, A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages [London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1962-68]).

CDIAL 1628 uksan- m. 'bull' RV [greater than] Prak. ukkha 'ox' [rightarrow] 9978 mahoksa- m. 'large bull' SBr. [greater than] Hindi mahoch m. 'great ox, blockhead'. Note the atrophy of the simplex. Mayrhofer, EWAia, I: 210 (s.v.) dwells mostly on unenlightening aspects of analysis and of the semantics.

CDIAL 5621 taksan- m. 'carpenter' RV acc. taksanam, Pan. acc. taksanam [greater than] Prak. takkhana- m. [greater than] Panjabi takhan m., Hindi takhan m.; Sinhalese sasa [less than] nom. taksa; also elsewhere with tar-, tra-, dar-, dra-, dra-, dhir-, dhri-, of unclear conflation. The simplex, however, survives, despite the neologism tastar- (EWAia, I: 692 [1992]). [2]

CDIAL 10679 rajan- (better rajan-) m. 'king', Waigali era-manas; [greater than] Pali nom. raja, gen. ranno, Girnar Asokan raja; rano [greater than] Gilgiti Sina ra, pl. raji razi ([less than] -jn-?), many others ra(y[a]). Another survivor. Rich references EWAia 11:444-46 (1994).

CDIAL 12085 (RV vrsan- [EWAia, II: 575-76 (1995)] acc. rarely vrsanam m. 'potent, strong, manly, virile; bull' [rightarrow]) vrsabha- m. 'powerful; lord, male, bull' [greater than] terms for 'bull' in Nepali, Bihari, Marathi, Bhojpuri, O Awadhi, Hindi; Sinhalese vahap 'ox' [leftarrow] Pali.

Although vrsan-, like uksan-, was not very hardy as a simplex, it has enjoyed some success extended by -bha-; in this form it seems to bequeath possible progeny in sarabha- and salabha-, enriching an ancient class of animals. On *-bho- cf. Greek [LANGUAGE NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]: Frisk, GEW 484 (1960).

taksan- and raj(a)n- seem to persevere as humans.

CDIAL 12331 sarabha- 'kind of deer' AV; Kati suru, and I-A forms in Dardic, Sindhi, Assamese for a wild goat probably represent an etymon not derived from a verb base. For a recent and precise account, see EWAia, II: 616 (1995).

CDIAL 12347 salabha- 'grasshopper, locust' has no agreed conjectured origin. [3] If this reflects *'jumper'...