Topic started by tigger (@ 68.78.33.162) on Sun Apr 13 12:13:57 EDT 2003.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.
Hi all,
I have learnt lots of Tamil words through tfm, but there are so many words that I still dont know the meaning of. I would love to improve my Tamil vocabulary, but resources are limited. I was wondering if we can have a thread that helps out in this regard. People post the words they dont understand and someone who knows responds with the answer. For this to succeed the old-timers have to get involved, bcos I dont know many younger guys who know much Tamil words :)
Ex.
1. samsaaram enbathu veenai..santhosham enbathu raagam.. xxx xxx illai
I used xxx because I dont even know what he was saying. was it "salanam galadhi illai"? What does that mean?
2. En mana vaanil siragai virikkum.. from Kasi. There is a line kalakalakala vena thulli kuthikkum sinnanchiru kalaiyey.. what does kalai mean?
3. Anjanam. What does it mean? (Used in various songs)
4. Uchi vaguntheduthu pichu poo vacha kili..What does this mean?
Please answer people!
Responses:
- Old responses
- From: Cinema Virumbi (@ 210.214.95.90)
on: Thu May 8 14:03:45 EDT 2003
other side,
>>who is responsible for new tamil words?<<
That's an interesting topic! New words get created on their own in the society/ by the society. But, a Govt., with all its powers, can either directly create words or be a catalyst in this process. A typical example is the huge number of Urdu words in Tamil, which must have entered post Mughal era.
In 1967, when DMK came to power, a whole new series of Tamil words were used by the Govt. which appeared initially amusing but slowly gained acceptance. eg., pErunthu, paNimanai, pErooratchi onRiyam, amaichchar, Ottunar, nadaththunar, payaNa cheettu, maavatta aatchiyaaLar, karuvoolam, kOttap poRiyaaLar, kaaval thuRai etc.,
MGR himself ordered that
' Seerthiruththa Tamil' script should be used by TN Govt. and in 24 years, it has gained full acceptance! He is said to have coined the word 'kOppu' for file.
Similarly, AIR and DD have always played a role in coining new words. Light music was known as 'laghu gaanam' or some such stuff until AIR started using 'mellisai'. Again, AIR (and perhaps Srilankan Radio) introduced the word
' oli chiththiram' for soundtrack. DD's 'oliyum oLiyum' was extremely popular! Some of the recent words from Govt./ Non Govt. agencies are 'maasu' (pollution), iNaiyam (internet) etc.,
Generally, the trend is towards Tamilising words from the more difficult Sanskritised words. For example, they used to write ' DhatchiNa railway' which was replaced by 'thennaga railway'.'BhoogOLam', 'bhowdhigam', 'rasaayanam', 'sarithtiram', 'vingyaanam' were replaced by 'puviyiyal', 'iyalbiyal', 'vEdhiyiyal , 'varalaaRu', 'aRiviyal' respectively!
Sometimes, the exercise looks rather unnatural, as in 'aadukaLam' trying to replace the traditional 'maidhaanam'!
The influence of Cinema goes without saying! The word 'arangERRam' acquired a rather dirty meaning after KB's roaring hit by that name!
More on some other occasion!
- From: Bharath (@ 202.54.11.72)
on: Fri May 9 08:09:07 EDT 2003
Wonderful thread. My appreciation of "mandram vantha.." increased mulifolds after this thread.
Kupps! very good explantion...
- From: other_side (@ 209.166.128.18)
on: Fri May 9 10:08:40 EDT 2003
Cinema Virumbi... great posting... expecting lots more.. hopefully a tamil mega serial like never ending postings on this topic.
Yeah i remeber that during karunandhi's last tenure. Mr.Thamizhkudimagan was the minister for a unique post, which had something to do with the development of tamil.Guess Amma is not bothered that much on these issues.
I also feel that the media is not at all bothered about it nowadays.Ceylon radio is still keeping that tradition of trying to use as much as possible tamal words.But dont know why the media in TN is not doing that :(.
---------------------------
let me share some words that i know
internet -> ennayam
e-mail -> minn anjal
-----------------------
the site http://www.kummalam.com/ has the whole menu in tamil..
probaly we could catch up on some words form there
-----------------------
members forum --> valai munthal
mezh kalavai --> remix mp3
iam not sure what mezh means here (is it mp3 or a song)
nenaivedugal --> guest book
-------------------------
everybody,please do input some tamil equalent words that you came across for commonly used english words
- From: other_side (@ 209.166.128.18)
on: Fri May 9 10:10:32 EDT 2003
oops lot of typo :)
please put your dagger's down. I meant
trying to use as much as possible "tamil" words not tamal
- From: tigger (@ 205.219.204.23)
on: Fri May 9 15:11:32 EDT 2003
Raj, Geeth, Cinema Virumbi: thanks for the great explanations!
so, the prefix sem/sen should be taken in context. semppoovey means beautiful flower, senthamizh means pure tamil.
pynkani means young kani, does pynkili mean young kili?
from the song: thamarai kannangal, thaen malar kinnangal..
there is a line ...maalaiyil santhithaen, maiyalil sinthithaen...
what does maiyal mean?
vettiveru vaasam, vedala ponnu nesam.
what does vedala mean? is that the same as veguli, meaning innocent/gullible?
- From: other_side (@ 209.166.128.18)
on: Fri May 9 15:48:13 EDT 2003
i think vedala is young or teen....
BTW came across some great link.. wanted to share
http://www.tamil.net/projectmadurai/pmfinish.html
http://www.tamil.net
- From: Raj (@ 206.97.63.112)
on: Fri May 9 17:31:59 EDT 2003
tigger : mayal means lust (love in this context) It is vidalai (colloquial --vedalai)
- From: minnal (@ 64.3.235.62)
on: Fri May 9 18:27:50 EDT 2003
Tigger,
This is an interesting topic. Glad that you started it.
my 2 cents
prefix "sem" can be used in different context.
sem - red
eg.
semmann - red soil
sempoove - red color flower
- From: geeth (@ 195.39.134.84)
on: Sat May 10 01:30:35 EDT 2003
Cinema_Virumbi, heard that lots of english-tamil translations were introduced during a big DMK manaadu in Coimbatore sometime in the late 70s. a liitle before they lost power to AIADMK. people say the govt authorities forced shops and establishments to repaint the boards with these tamil words. can you throw some light on it ?
many of them were very interesting and stayed on for sometime. was very young and unable to recollect many but a few goes as follows.
Company - kuzhumam
Coffee - kottai vadi neer
Tea - ilai vadi neer
Coffee with milk - kottai vadi neer paal kuzhambi
Tea with milk - Ilai vadi neer paal kuzhambi
Coffee shop - kottai vadi neer kuzhambiagam
Tea Stall - ilai vadi neer kuzhambiagam
Bakery (CBE's famous for these) - adumanai
the cake of it all :
Malleable & Ductile Pipe Company - Vazhaimaazhai kuzhaai kuzhumam
- From: Raj (@ 206.97.63.112)
on: Sat May 10 04:29:00 EDT 2003
tigger: pyngkili means green feathered parrot,if it refers to a parrot and young girl if it refers to a girl. pyngkani ithazh means young sweet lips. While senthamizh is pure classical Tamil,senkadal is red sea and sevvanam is red sky as minnal already pointed out. sempavala vaai is lips(mouth) like red coral.
- From: tigger (@ 68.78.134.3)
on: Sat May 10 21:25:36 EDT 2003
I think I should have a signature file or something that says "thanks Raj!" :)
in the song "ilavenir kaala panjami.." there is a line ..piththanai pol aanaen..
what does piththan mean?
- From: Raj (@ 206.97.63.112)
on: Sat May 10 22:06:41 EDT 2003
Thanks tigger: pithan means mad man or crazy man.The line means " I have gone crazy or mad"
- From: tigger (@ 68.78.134.3)
on: Sat May 10 23:24:02 EDT 2003
Raj, then what is the meaning of pulamaipithan?
I think there is a politician with that name.
- From: tigger (@ 68.78.134.3)
on: Sat May 10 23:25:22 EDT 2003
does it mean someone who is mad about (very interested in) literature?
- From: Raj (@ 206.97.63.112)
on: Sun May 11 00:07:56 EDT 2003
tigger: Yes. It can be translated as: one who is madly in love with knowledge(expertise) or one who is mad about acquiring knowledge or becoming an expert. In the previous query the man was madly in love or simply mad. Pen pithan means one who is madly after women. You probably heard of Shiva being called "pitha pirai soodi perumane.." in Thevaram.
- From: Cinema Virumbi (@ 210.214.95.24)
on: Sun May 11 06:12:38 EDT 2003
Geeth,
Even I had read long back that there was an entity called 'SErar koRRam' in Coimbatore, which insisted on pure Tamil on boards of shops.
While 'kottai vadi neer' and 'ilai vadi neer' sound rather contrived, IMHO, 'adumanai' is not at all bad for bakery!
Someone clarified to me that it is not 'kuzhambi' for coffee but 'kuLambi'. It is said to be derived from 'kuLambu' (hoof of a horse, which a coffee seed resembles!). Similarly, 'malai vaNdi' for jeep may sound funny but then jeep itself is made up of GP (General Purpose vehicle!).
- From: tigger (@ 68.78.140.121)
on: Wed May 14 22:11:58 EDT 2003
ok, some more..
panivizhum malarvanam un paarvai oru varam
ini varum muni varum..
what is muni? i hope it doesn't mean munivar because that wouldn't make sense!
same song, ..kaalai ezhunthaal parigaasam...
what is parigaasam?
similar to parigaasam there are some words. ullaasam, paravasam etc. I have a vague idea what they mean, but what is the exact meaning?
there is an old song "oru chinna paravai annaiyai thaedi vaanil parakirathu.."
in that there is a line: ..annai enbathu maanudam alla..
what is maanudam?
- From: Kupps (@ 203.199.209.101)
on: Thu May 15 00:48:28 EDT 2003
u see vairamuththu's lyrics especially the cine variety, that too aedhugai mOnai (rhyming) words have always baffled me, resulting i have a negative tilt towards vairamuththu's lyrics feeling that some words are there just for the sake of being there because they SOUND good). but i admit im not a learned thamizh person. with this introduction, tigger, my two cents on "inivarum munivarum" are:
1) ini varum muni varum -> muni is a village/tribal (demi-)god. his full name is muneeswaran/muneeswarar. muneeswarar is one of aellai kaaval daeivam (aellai=border; kaaval=security/police-ing etc; daeivam=god/demi-god). here aellai denotes the border of the village/town. other aellai kaaval daeivams are ayyanaar; karupaNNasaami; paechchiamman; kaaLiamman; maariyamman etc. here the ammans i mentioned sometimes i.e. in some villages are the presiding deity also. so their abode(temple) will be within the village limit. Also, one another such kaaval daeivam is madurai veeran. He was a man but since he protected people and died due to an unjustified (injustice) captial punishment he got a demi-god status. kaaththavaraayan is also another such attained status demi-god. i think, this kaathavaraayan is shortly called as kaaththu and karuppaNNasaami is shortly called as karuppu. we could have heard these names "kaaththu karuppu". it infact refers to these demi-gods. one can find many such kaaval demi-gods at various parts of thamizhnaadu. coming back to muneeswarar, muneeswarar has many versions -- madurai mottai gopuram(north tower) muneeswarar, madras pallavan illam(opposite to central railway station) pallavan saalai 'body guard' muneeswarar, paal muneeswarar etc. etc. Coming to our "ini varum muni varum", if u take this muni as the demi-god then we end up in a confusing state as why the lyricist suddenly has to recall a demi-god in a love duet. that too our confusion increases if we listen to its succeeding line "thadumaarum thani(or is it kani) maram".
2) if u take it as "ini varum munivarum" that is munivarum = an ascetic also; meaning an(any) ascetic (who) would come afterwards. again in this case also as you have observed it becomes absurd when it comes to the succeeding line.
parigaasam means kaeli, kindal i.e. kidding.
ullaasam means enjoyment, fun
paravasam means bliss (generally is used to refer a state of mind of one who is enlightened spritually). but paravasam is also used (especially in cine lyrics) as to mean orgasm.
- From: Kupps (@ 203.199.209.101)
on: Thu May 15 01:19:27 EDT 2003
selva, geeth, Bharath, ec, other_side, aruL thanks.
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