many pancakes

[Elliot Stern]

>I thank all those who give me so many pancakes.
>        I was mainly interested by the making-off, hence the (a)pUpa of
>Kalyanaraman, despite the ancientness quoted by Elliot Stern, is, alas,
>useless.
>        Similarly the roTI(kA) of Edeltraud Harzer Clear, analysed by
>Elliot Stern. I resist to the temptation of latin rota 'wheel' which, in
>fact, is linked to ratha ;-(    but portuguese? ;-)
>        Mahendra Verma suggests Hindi cillaa but, being inexpert, I was
>unable to find a Sanskrit root to this word. A loan-word?

CDIAL #4827 *cilla-2 'unctuous, shining'
Pk. cillaa- cilliya 'shining'; Sindhi cilo 'pancake' ... Nepali cillo
'greasy, smooth, polished', substantive 'grease, ghee', Hindi cilaknaa 'to
be bright', cilcilaanaa 'to be very hot (of the sun)'

I would guess that 'shine, be bright' is the unifying meaning. Fresh rotis
shine when brushed with ghee.

>        The ghAvana of Avinash Sathaye is puzzling, not found in
>Monnier-Williams, where the nearest form seems to be a root ghuN- 'to go or
>move about'. Mayrhofer (KEWA) precises ghuNati, ghoNati or ghUrNati 'moves
>to and fro' (only ghUrN- 'waver' in Whitney). The 'n' seems to be in the
>root but that's not sure, because MW and M give a link with ghola
>'buttermilk', a product of churning. All this could suggest the ghAvana
>pancake to be made with a movement (rotative? alternative?). Any precision
>in the recipe? I think to the Greek kha(w)os 'original Chaos' (said in some
>traditions = Tartaros, agitated by perpetual winds).

When my eye wandered to CDIAL 4466 *ghaana 'mill', I noticed a Marathi word
ghaavan 'stone mortar'. I don't know Marathi, or exactly what sort of
mortar this is. That said, please accept the wild guess of a possible
connection.


Elliot M. Stern
552 South 48th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19143-2029
USA

telephone: 215 747 6204