"samsara" meaning "life"

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

On February 2, 2009, George Hart wrote: 
 <In modern Brahmin Tamil, it means wife.

Actually, 'camcAram' in the sense of 'wife' is to be considered as more of 
a non-brahmin usage. In non-brahmin colloqial usage, among the three words 
for wife 'peNTATTi', 'camcAram'/'camucAram', and 'manaivi', 
Tamil 'peNTATTi' is considered less refined than Sanskrit-
derived 'camcAram' and Tamil 'manaivi' is considered to be the most refined 
usage. The common brahmin dialect usage includes Tamil AmuTaiyAL/AmpaTaiyAL 
< akamuTaiyAl and hybrid AttukkAri < AkattukkAri. 

Brahmins may use 'camcAram' while conversing with non-brahmins because it 
is of wide currency. That 'camcAram' is widely used can be inferred from 
the line "cAram niRainta ulakai cEytavaL camcAram" in the film 
song "nethiyile oru" , the second song in the following link 
http://www.hummaa.com/music/album/13897/Nitchya+Thamboolam+(tml) . The line 
starts at 3min:23sec from the start of the introduction by the music 
director. The lyrics were by late Kannadasan, a well-known poet and 
lyricist and the situation had nothing to do with brahmins.

Regards,
S. Palaniappan