[Y-Indology] bEjAr (urdu) - word origin

[Guest guest]

But bezaar comes directly out of Persian (see, e.g., Steingass p. 220), in

extremely transparent ways, via ghazal vocabulary that is used very

commonly in Urdu/Hindi films. "Bejaar" is just a Hindification of the

word. Any other derivation would seem to be much less direct and not

necessary to explain the word.

 

 

On Thu, 28 Feb 2002, naga_ganesan wrote:

 

>

> Have analyzed the roots of the Urdu word bEjAr/bEzAr

> heard in Hindi/Urdu films. This word is Dravidian

> (DED 4544).

>

> Often times, kaNNaRai = loss of eye, blind person;

> mUkkaRai = loss of nose; kAtaRai = loss of ears, hence deaf

> etc., are used in ancient Tamil literature.

>

> Parallel to these, vEcaRai, literally meaning

> 'loss of strength, and hence, fatigued' is also used. Two examples -

> one from Kampan's Ramayanam where the verb "vEcaRutal"

> is used by Ravanan's wife at the sight of

> Indrajit's body. The other one is from

> AbhirAmi patikam (early 18th century).

>

> agathiyar/message/16294

> (or)

> tamil-ulagam/message/9130

>

> (TSCII fonts are needed to read these URL.

> Freely downloadable at TSCII Files section.)

>

> Tamil vEcaRai, Kannada bEsaRa, TuLu bEjAru,

> Telugu vEcaramu is what is found in Urdu.

>

> Regards,

> N. Ganesan

>

>

>

>

>

> indology

>

>

>

> Your use of is subject to

>

>

[Guest guest]

INDOLOGY, Frances Pritchett <fp7@c...> wrote:

>

> But bezaar comes directly out of Persian (see, e.g., Steingass p.

220), in

> extremely transparent ways, via ghazal vocabulary that is used very

> commonly in Urdu/Hindi films. "Bejaar" is just a Hindification of

the

> word. Any other derivation would seem to be much less direct and not

> necessary to explain the word.

>

 

The word in Tamil has multiple senses. cf. MTL

 

vEcaRu

1. To be weary, fatigued

2. To be vexed, distressed

 

This word is attested in a Saivite bhakti text (tiruvAcakam, 6.50).

Hence the timelines may not agree with a Urdu borrowing for this one.

 

However, a similar sounding word pEjAr (always pronounced bEjAr) has

the foll MTL entry:

 

pEjAr (< Urdu bEzAr) 1. Fatigue, weariness 2. Annoyance, disgust,

displeasure.

 

 

By a process of accretion, multiple meanings have got attached to

this lexical item now. It is just my guess, the original Tamil

lexical item (with the short 'a' and the initial v-) was not widely

used in literature. But the second one (with the long 'a' and the

initial voiced consonant, the latter a rarity/impossibility for

native Tamil words) is widely used in colloquial speech by almost all

sections in northern Tamilnadu esp Madras. This probably points to a

loan from Urdu more than anything else.

 

 

Hope this helps,

 

Lakshmi Srinivas