[INDOLOGY] Etymology of vetana 'wages'

Georges PINAULT georges.pinault at wanadoo.fr
Wed Aug 10 13:40:54 UTC 2016


Dear All, Actually, the book of Jeong-Soo Kim (2010) does not treat anywhere the issue of Skt. vetana-, since he does not go beyond the material from RV and AV. I may mention that in his second etymological dictionary Mayrhofer quotes vetana- under vedana- (II, p. 580) with question mark, and only refers to his previous dictionary (III, p. 254). I have nothing new to offer, but I would assume that the very specific meaning of vetana- does not favor any identification with védana- (RV+), which does not mean 'wages, hire, salary', etc. 
Best regards, Georges-Jean Pinault 




> Message du 10/08/16 13:07
> De : "Dieter Gunkel" 
> A : "Olivelle, J P" 
> Copie à : "indology at list.indology.info" 
> Objet : Re: [INDOLOGY] Etymology of vetana 'wages'
> 
> You might also check 
>Kim, Jeong-Soo. 2010. Untersuchungen zu altindischen Abstrakta und Adjektiven im Rigveda und Atharvaveda. Die primären a-Stämme und die ana-Bildungen. Bremen: Hempen,
>
>which is partly dedicated to nouns suffixed with -ana-. If the author treats vetana- in the book, there should be some discussion of its morphological composition.
>Best wishes, 
>Dieter
> On Sat, Aug 6, 2016 at 11:03 PM, Olivelle, J P  wrote:
> Actually, Mayrhofer (3: 254) says “Vielleicht doch mit Mehendale” — and given the vid etymology. The change from -d- to -t- is viewed as a NW dialectical variation. He also refers to Kuiper (ZII 8, 263f) who appears to derive it from veto with the suffix -tana, as Mr. Misra states. There appears to be no consensus among historical linguists. 
>Patrick
>
>
> On Aug 6, 2016, at 3:29 PM, Nityanand Misra  wrote:
> 
> 
> On 6 August 2016 at 23:56, Donald R Davis  wrote:
> Dear Colleagues,
>M.A. Mehendale, “Some Remarks of the Language of the Original Buddhist Canon,” Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute, Vol. 17, No. 3 (December 1955) suggests that the etymology of Skt. vetana ‘wages’ is "vedana ‘wealth, possessions’ from /vid ‘to find, to obtain, to give, etc.’ which is known since the Rgveda” (p167). 
> Would those of you with IE expertise kindly confirm this etymology, point me elsewhere, or share your thoughts on alternative etymologies? I have not yet been able to check Mayrhofer.
>
>
>Sounds dubious, for how the d of vid would change to t when followed by a vowel is beyond me. Here is the authentic traditional etymology: 
>vī gativyāptiprajanakāntyasanakhādaneṣu (DP 1048) → vīpatibhyāṃ tanan (US 3.150) → vī + tanan → halantyam (A 1.3.3), tasya lopaḥ (A 1.3.9) → vī + tana → sārvadhātukārdhadhātukayoḥ (A 7.3.84) → ve tana → vetana.

> 
The Uṇādisūtra vīpatibhyāṃ tanan (US 3.150) ordains the suffix tanan (of which only tana remains) from the root vī gativyāptiprajanakāntyasanakhādaneṣu’ which is used in the meanings of gati (movement), vyāpti (pervading), prajana (conception), kānti (desire), asana (throwing), and khādana (eating). The rule sārvadhātukārdhadhātukayoḥ (A 7.3.84) results in the ‘vī’ → ve transformation to get ‘vetana’.

>
The word occurs in Amarakoṣa 2.10.38, and the various commentaries on it may be consulted. Both the Udghāṭana and Vyākhyāsudhā commentaries cite US 3.150 and explain the word as vīyate anena iti vetanam. The form vīyate is the passive (yaki, or karmaṇi) form of the root vī whose active (karttari) form is veti. The meaning of vīyate anena iti vetanam, consequently, is ‘that with which [something] is obtained is vetana’. Roots with the meaning ‘to go’ also have the meaning ‘to obtain’ as per the maxim ye gatyarthāste prāptyarthāḥ.

>
> 

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