Request for reference and correct meaning!

[thompson at handel.jlc.net]

In response to Ramukumar [nice palindrome]:

The name mAtari'zvA [-an] is interesting, especially in light of our recent
discussion of etymology, folk etymology, and puns.  While in general I
respect and know how to distinguish historical, well-founded, etymologies
from ad hoc folk etymologies, now and then it appears that the way to
distinguish them is this: if it comes from a professor of philology from a
distinguished European university it is etymology; if it comes from a
native speaker it is folk etymology.  The name mAtari'zvan illustrates this
nicely.

In fact, the etymology is contested [see Mayrhofer's review of the various
theories in his etymological dictionary].  In further fact, the name has
been etymologized for over 3,000 years, starting from the Rgveda itself.

At RV 3.29.11 we find what is clearly a punning play on the name [this is
not just my opinion; cf. also Renou, Oldenberg, Macdonell, et al.]:

        mAtari'zvA ya'd a'mimIta mAta'ri
        [Agni is called] MAtarizvan, because he is measured out
        [i.e. given form] in the mother....

As it turns out this word-play on a key epithet of Agni holds up quite
well, etymologically speaking, against the best efforts of our European
philologists at the best universities.  In fact, it is better, I think,
than Burrow's [which connects it with Latin "matrix"], and Mayrhofer
appears to agree with me. In fact, it would appear that most European
etymologists accept the implicit folk etymology, that mAtari'zvan should be
analyzed as mAtari'- + zvan- [i.e., "growing, swelling up (root zU-) in the
mother (loc. sg. of mAta'r)].

In light of the apparent variants, Vedic mAtari'bhvarI, Epic MA'talI [even
MAkali, lexical], there is a reasonable chance that the RV effort at
etymologizing the name is simply a folk etymology, or a pun, and in fact
that we do not have any idea what its true etymology is.

Sincerely,
George Thompson