Nirukta — etymology and meaning
निरुक्त
Also written: nirukta · yaska · vedic etymology · nighantu
Grammar tells you how a word is formed; Nirukta tells you what it means, and why. Yāska's Nirukta, a commentary on the older Nighaṇṭu word-lists, is the oldest surviving treatise on semantics in any language.
Method
- Words are grouped into four classes: nāma (noun), ākhyāta (verb), upasarga (prefix) and nipāta (particle).
- Yāska holds that nouns derive from verbal roots — that meaning is rooted in action. Not everyone agreed, and he records the opposition.
- Where a Vedic word is obscure, the method is to identify the root, the action it names, and the context of the hymn — not to guess.
- He preserves the views of seventeen earlier etymologists whose works are otherwise lost.
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Last revised 2026-08-16. Corrections are welcome — see how this site is written.