आज का शब्द / آج كا شبد / ਅੱਜ ਦਾ ਸ਼ਬਦ

[muckefuck]

बोटी / بوٿي / ਬੋਟੀ boTee (cf. Sanskrit वटक vaṭaka "small lump") "small piece of flesh"

The inspiration for today's word came from yesterday's lunch. So why didn't I post it yesterday? Because I had a more ambitious post planned that would discuss the systematic use of feminine gender to derive diminutives in NIA. Maybe next time. For now, all you need to know is that बोटी has a big brother बोटा boTaa which does not seem to be in common use nowadays, but which is more likely to be a direct descendant of वटक.

Another common morphological process in NIA is reduplication, as seen in the Panjabi expression ਬੋਟੀ ਬੋਟੀ ਕਰਣਾ boTee boTee karNaa "cut to pieces". Hindi equivalents include बोटियाँ काटना (काटना kaaTnaa "cut"), बोटियाँ उड़ाना (उड़ाना uRhaanaa "blow"), and टिक्का-बोटी करना tikkaa boTee karnaa where टिक्का is a near-synonym borrowed from Persian (تكه). (By the way, टिक्का tikkaa / تكه tikka provides a rare instance of a true morphological divergence between Hindi and Urdu. In Hindi, the common Persian suffix -ah is treated as -aa, whereas in Urdu, it is pronounced short.) Another less grisly verbal expression is बोटी चढ़ना boTee charRhnaa "become fat or plump".