Pati (title)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pati (Hindustani: पति, پتی) is a title meaning "master" or "lord" in various Indo-Iranian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindustani, Old Persian language and Avestan.[1] The feminine equivalent in Indo-Aryan languages is patni (literally, "mistress" or "lady"). The term pati is frequently used as a suffix, e.g. lakhpati (meaning, master of a lakh rupees).[2] In modern-day Hindustani and other Indian, Nepalese and Bangladeshi languages, pati and patni have taken on the meanings of husband and wife respectively when used as standalone words.[2]

Modern usage

  • As a standalone term indicating husband, pati
  • In an official title, e.g. rashtra-pati (national president), sena-pati (general, master of an army/sena)
  • In adjectives, e.g. kror-pati (करोड़पति, کروڑپتی, rich, master of a crore rupees)
  • As a descriptive term, e.g. dampati (married couple, master and mistress of the house)

Etymology and cognates

The term pati is believed to originate from the Proto-Indo-European language.[3] Older Persian languages, such as Avestan, use the term pati or paiti as a title extensively, e.g. dmana-paiti (master of the house, similar to Sanskrit dam-pati).[1][3] In several Indo-European languages, cognate terms exist in varying forms (often as a suffix), for instance in the English word "despot" from the Greek δεσ-πότης, meaning "master, despot, lord, owner."[1] In Latin, the term changed meaning from master to able, and is "an example of a substantive coming to be used as an adjective," resulting in English words such as potent, potential and potentate.[4] In Lithuanian, pats as a standalone word came to mean husband, himself (patis in Old Lithuanian), as did pati in Hindustani.[4]

Common usagge

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Roger D. Woodard, Indo-European sacred space: Vedic and Roman cult, University of Illinois Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-252-02988-2, "... in Iran ... dmana-paiti, the vis-paiti, the zantu-paiti, and the dahyu-paiti ... Vedic dam-pati- 'master of the house', cognate to Avestan dmana-paiti, Greek preserves δεσ-πότης 'master, despot, lord, owner'; the Avestan vis-paiti finds his etymological counterpart not only in Vedia vis-pati- 'chief of the settlement, lord of the house', but in Lithuanian vies-pats 'lord' ..." 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 John T. Platts, A Dictionary Of Urdu, Classical Hindi And English, Kessinger Publishing, 2004, ISBN 978-0-7661-9231-7, "... lakh-pati, or lakh-patl, or lakh-pat, sm Owner of a lac (of rupees), a millionaire ..." 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Benjamin W. Fortson, Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, John Wiley and Sons, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4051-8896-8, "... 'lord of the house' < Indo-Ir. *dams pati-, PIE *dems potis ..." 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Peter Giles, A short manual of comparative philology for classical students, Macmillan and Co., 1895, "... in Lithuanian pats (older patis), which means husband or lord and is identical with the Greek , Skt. patis and Latin potis (no longer a substantive) ... The Latin form of this word - potis - gives us an example of a substantive coming to be used as an adjective. In the verb possum, a corruption of potis sum, the original sense 'I am master' has faded into the vaguer 'I am able' ..." 


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.