RE: [Samskrita] How to read Monier Williams online dictionary?

[Vimala Sarma]

I am sorry to say that this forum decided some time ago that it will not be providing advice on baby names which can be obtained from a number of onłine sources such as;

http://www.indianhindunames.com/indian-hindu-girl-name-s.htm

 

Su is a prefix for good, well, and can be added on to other words (nouns, particles or adjectives) - so you have plenty of choice.

 

For help with MW:

 

Green font are original sources and the list is in the front of the dictionary/. http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/monier/mwauthorities/mwauth_SktDevaUnicode.html#record_Ka1v_;   See http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/index.php?sfx=pdf

 

 

Vimala

 

Dr Vimala Sarma

My new e-mail is sarma...@gmail.com

+612 9699 4414

+61 409 690 220

 

From: sams...@googlegroups.com [mailto:sams...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Su Kris
Sent: Sunday, 21 April 2013 10:10 AM
To: sams...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Samskrita] How to read Monier Williams online dictionary?

 

I am looking for Sanskrit girl baby names starting with "S" and consulting Monier Williams dictionary to be sure.
Name list websites are highly unreliable - the one makes a blunder and a hundred others copy that wrong entry.

In the process, I discovered that Monier Williams dictionary is very hard to understand for someone who is
not already a linguist or a halfway Sanskrit scholar...

For instance, I had many doubts:

1) When an entry says mfn. does it mean it is an adjective that can be used for a male, female or neutral noun?

2) When an entry has f. next to it, does it mean it is a female noun?

3) Take the entry sAra (सार)
mf(आ)n. hard , firm solid strong MBh. Ka1v. &c

What does it mean to have आ next to f? Does it mean the word has to be said as sArA instead of sAra when used as an adjective for a female noun?

4) I see the entry: (H1B) सार 2 [L=242830] mf(आ)n. precious , valuable Das3.
Does it mean that sAra was used to mean "precious, valuable" in the  source Dasakumara Charita (Das3)

5) I never understand the words in green font. For example take this entry:

(H3) सु--रुचि [p= 1232,2] [L=248722] f. great delight in (loc.) S3a1rn3gP. (v.l.)

great delight in what? What is "loc"?
And what is v.l?

6) Many words that stand for girl names  say "of an apsaras" What of an apsaras? (I know that an Apsara is a nymph, just not sure what the phrase means)
For example, see entry:
(H3B) सु--रूप [L=248735] m. of an अप्सरस् Hariv.

7) I don't understand what (H1) (H1b) (h3b) etc stand for?

Please help. The baby is due anytime now and I am still struggling!! If not anything else, can a Sanskrit Scholar please confirm if SARA is a suitable Sanskrit name for a girl baby meaning "precious"?

Thanks
Su Kris

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[Morgan Morrison]

If I might suggest this option for finding a name for a baby girl, without having to deal with the M-W Sanskrit Dictionary, which is certainly showing its "age" by the second decade of the 21st Century, I would recommend that you first decide upon what you want to name the baby girl for in Sanskrit — be it a quality, after a Devi or some other suitable name. Then I would consult the Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Based upon the St. Petersburg Lexicons, edited by Carl Cappeller, first published in 1891 and more recently published as a volume in the Cambridge [University] Library Collection Series in Linguistics in 2009. There are editions of this Sanskrit-English Dictionary available online and also available, as a searchable volume, on Amazon.com's web site, so that you can check the proper Devanagari spelling of the name(s) that you are considering or have selected, as well their semantic import (meaning(s)). Aside from the use of an older initial vowel character for "a" in the Cappeller Dictionary, for which you can substitute the modern Devanagari initial "a" character, this particular approach to finding a name for the baby girl in Sanskrit that is correctly spelled and that has a very accurate meaning, based upon the contextual uses of the Sanskrit word in texts, rather than a simple denotational meaning of the M-W Dictionary. Remember to use the Feminine form(s) for nouns in Sanskrit, since you are naming a baby girl. The Cappeller Sanskrit-English Dictionary is based upon the St. Petersburg Lexicons that is still considered one of the best dictionaries of Sanskrit (to German) ever published. The English translation of Capeller's Sanskrit Dictionary is also very accurate and contains about 50,000+ entries (with often several different forms of the same root word(s) included). You might also consult one of the many Apte Sanskrit-English Dictionaries, but I highly recommend starting your search in the Capeller Sanskrit-English first. 

Best, 

Morgan Morrison

Research Professor

Sanskrit Studies Foundation

USA/EUA 

[Ajit Krishnan]

> I don't understand what (H1) (H1b) (h3b) etc stand for? 

This is just an internal artifact of the electronic version of the MW dictionary. It stands for whether it is a main entry, related-entry of sub-entry. I don't remember the exact details.

 

   ajit

 

 

On Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 12:35 PM, jivadas <das....@gmail.com> wrote:

On Saturday, 20 April 2013 20:10:28 UTC-4, Su Kris wrote:

I am looking for Sanskrit girl baby names starting with "S" and consulting Monier Williams dictionary to be sure.
Name list websites are highly unreliable - the one makes a blunder and a hundred others copy that wrong entry.

In the process, I discovered that Monier Williams dictionary is very hard to understand for someone who is
not already a linguist or a halfway Sanskrit scholar...

For instance, I had many doubts:

1) When an entry says mfn. does it mean it is an adjective that can be used for a male, female or neutral noun?

Yes. 

2) When an entry has f. next to it, does it mean it is a female noun? 

Yes.

 

3) Take the entry sAra (सार)
mf(आ)n. hard , firm solid strong MBh. Ka1v. &c

What does it mean to have आ next to f? Does it mean the word has to be said as sArA instead of sAra when used as an adjective for a female noun? 

No. It means that the feminine form ends only in -A rather than -I.   

4) I see the entry: (H1B) सार 2 [L=242830] mf(आ)n. precious , valuable

Das3.

Does it mean that sAra was used to mean "precious, valuable" in the  source Dasakumara Charita

(Das3)
Yes.

 

5) I never understand the words in green font. For example take this entry:

(H3) सु--रुचि [p= 1232,2] [L=248722] f. great delight in (loc.) S3a1rn3gP. (v.l.)

great delight in what? What is "loc"? 

The locative case.

 

And what is v.l? 

Short for carium lectio, Latin for 'variant reading'. 

6) Many words that stand for girl names  say "of an apsaras" What of an apsaras? (I know that an Apsara is a nymph, just not sure what the phrase means)
For example, see entry:
(H3B) सु--रूप [L=248735] m. of an अप्सरस् Hariv.

Should have an "N." for "name" of an apsaras.  

7) I don't understand what (H1) (H1b) (h3b) etc stand for? 

Neither do I.  

[Shreevatsa R]

On 30 April 2013 01:56, Ajit Krishnan <ajit.k...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't understand what (H1) (H1b) (h3b) etc stand for? 

This is just an internal artifact of the electronic version of the MW dictionary. It stands for whether it is a main entry, related-entry of sub-entry. I don't remember the exact details.

Right, it is explained here: http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/talkMay2008/mwtags.html 

They correspond to the font sizes in the printed book, as explained on page xiv of the Introduction: http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de//cgi-bin/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw010018.jpg