muckefuck: (Default)
muckefuck ([personal profile] muckefuck) wrote2008-11-23 10:51 pm

आज का शब्द / آج كا شبد / ਅੱਜ ਦਾ ਸ਼ਬਦ

प्याज़ / پياز / ਪਿਆਜ਼ pyaaz "onion"
A quick one today, inspired by [livejournal.com profile] wwidsith. Not much to say about this term, since it's a straightforward loan from Persian. It does however spawn the nisbah adjective प्याज़ी / پيازي / प्याज़ी pyaazee which in addition to meaning "oniony" has the extended meaning "of reddish colour". (For Hindi, Platts gives "crimson" whereas my Panjabi sources agree on "pinkish". Anyone have an opinion on how to describe the hue of Indian onions?)

Another term (which may well be more common in Panjabi) is गण्डा gaNDaa / ਗੰਢਾ gaMDhaa, which looks tadbhava, but I'm unsure of the exact origin. The Panjabi diminutive ਗੰਢੀ gaMDhee has among its meanings "clove [of garlic]" (i.e. ਥੋਮ ਦੀ ਗੰਢੀ). Garlic also has an assortment of names in NIA--so many in fact, they're probably best explored in another post.

[identity profile] muckefuck.livejournal.com 2008-11-24 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
I can't find any Bollywood movie named "Pyaaza", but there are two named Pyaasa (प्यासा): The 1957 classic staring Waheeda Rehman and 2002 film featuring Aftab Shivdasani and Anang Desai. The word means "thirsty" and is related adjective to प्यास "thirst".

I'm not sure how common it is for nouns to form adjectives with the addition of -आ. The nisbah ending -ई (another borrowing from Persian) seems to be more common.

[identity profile] mollpeartree.livejournal.com 2008-11-24 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, oops! I was thinking of the (awesome) 1957 one.