तरवारि

Etymology
A Kulturwort of highly obscure origin.

The traditional theory considers the word as a rhotacized and betacized clipping of, a corruption of , a voiced variant of , a diminutive of , a compound of + , literally "hand-protector".

However, the wide range of lemmas in other languages which bear resemblance to the word, as well as its constituent syllables ( and ), casts doubt on the above derivation. For, compare 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, and 🇨🇬; for , compare 🇨🇬; and for the compound , compare 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, and 🇨🇬. The -ṛ-, -ž-, and -č- sounds in the latter three lemmas, in particular, are difficult to reconcile with the simple -r- in the Sanskrit term, but would make more sense if borrowed from a Dravidian language.

As a solution, Mayrhofer proposes that the Sanskrit word is an "identity compound" of and, both meaning "sword". probably derives from, while is borrowed from a  language (compare 🇨🇬, whence the Tamil term  mentioned above). The Kurukh, Ho, and Pashto terms would then be borrowed from Indo-Aryan (perhaps at various chronological stages), with the full borrowings being phonetically influenced by the Dravidian term for sword.

He also takes and its relatives (including, as well as possibly  and ), as partial loan translations of 🇨🇬, with the similar-sounding and meaning  substituting for the Dravidian. If is indeed related, then the "hand-protector" interpretation and phonetic shift is driven by folk etymology.

Noun

 * 1) sword, scimitar
 * 2) one-edged sword