List of English Words derived from Sanskrit via Latin Greek Persian

By Gurudev Dec 29, 2009

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One of my friends said, Look at the rich technical vocabulary of English. Isnt it amazing that today

we have so many new words created in English like Computer, Processor, onitor, Internet, !ardware, "oftware etc that it is almost impossible to create words with similar meaning in other languages and so instead we will have to directly import these english words into our languages to keep pace with the rapidly evolving new terms . #$ery %rue.&, I said, #'ny language during the time period of its peak usage as a spoken language will have its words imported into other languages that e(ist during that period. )ust like the way "anskrit words which got imported into *reek, Latin, Persian, etc during the peak usage of "anskrit. %hese "anskrit words have today silently formed a vast ma+ority of the ,riginal English Language-&.
And then I explained to him the Sanskrit source of various English words and he was quite surprised not because he didnt knew it all these days, but because he had failed to recognize the obvious

phoenetic connection that existed between words in his Indian language (which is again derived from Sanskrit) and similarsounding words with similar meaning in English!
So I thought I better pen down a list of all such English words derived indirectly from the ancient Sanskrit. But before that, as usual a small preface The World)s "ldest Kno,n #iterary ,or* - the Vedas the root source of the Indian and Hindu Philosophy and Spirituality are written in Sanskrit.

#%he "anskrit language, whatever be its anti.uity, is of wonderful structure/ more perfect than the *reek, more copious than the Latin, and more e(.uisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could not possibly have been produced by accident/ so strong indeed, that no philologer could e(amine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source which, perhaps, no longer e(ists/ there is a similar reason, though not .uite so forcible, for supposing that both the *othick and the Celtick, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the "anskrit/ and the old Persian might be added to the same family&
So said Sir William Jones the English Philologist who for the first time in 1786 suggested in his book The Sanscrit Language that Greek and Latin were related to Sanskrit and perhaps even Gothic, Celtic and Persian languages were related to Sanskrit. It was this work which later gave birth to the so called Proto-Indo-European theory which instead of looking into Sanskrit being the root language of all Indo-European languages, suggests that all IndoEuropean languages including Sanskrit came from another so far unheard of language called PIE or Proto-Indo-European language. Well, the irony is that till today there is no literature in the world about the so called PIE. There is no inscription found anywhere in the world written in the so called PIE. Nobody knows how the PIE was. Nobody knows who spoke it or in which part of the world was it spoken. No known ancient culture in the world talks about such a language being the root of the language they spoke. Simply put there is NO PROOF about the existence of this language. Just look at its name. It was a name GIVEN to it. A language if spoken will definitely contain words referring to everything that the people who spoke it could identify, yet here is a language which doesnt even have a name referring to itself! So then what is the basis of having introduced this language in the language tree in the first place - a language which will remain invisible forever? Might be a guess, Max Muller used to guess a lot like this about the vedas, which he then retreated later. Be it Greek Latin English Hindi Lithuanian Sanskrit is the mother of all Languages. Even Scholars like Voltaire, Immanuel Kant etc believed that Sanskrit was the root of all Indo-European languages.

#I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the *anges& said Voltaire. He believed that the #0ynasty of 1rahmins taught the rest of the world& . # ankind together with all science must have originated on the roof of the world ie the !imalayas& declared Immanuel Kant.
About PIE No idea, they are all linguistic experts who created this language, Oops, I mean its existence for the language itself is not known yet. I am not an expert to speak on PIE, might be those who speak about it are experts in this language

All I do is present below a list of English words which are derived from Latin/Greek/Persian which are in turn derived from Sanskrit. Indians will be quick enough to recognize these words in their own language since most Indian languages have also originated from Sanskrit and even the other languages have a great deal of Sanskrit influence on them. And here goes the list of English words derived from Sanskrit. NOTE: Just to make it clear the below list does not contain Sanskrit words that have been directly borrowed into English in recent times like Karma, Avatar, Mantra, Guru, Cheetah, Pundit, Juggernaut, Nirvana, Lakh etc but lists only those English words which were derived from Sanskrit as English evolved by borrowing words from Greek/Latin etc.

Mainstream English words with Sanskrit Roots

Median Word in Latin(L ! Greek(G ! Root Sanskrit Word "rabic(" -au %meanin$ Co,' Bous %-' !atr %meanin$ !other' !ater %#' 0an %meanin$ -eneration' -enea %-' 1*sha %meanin$ 12is' 12on %-' 3ava$atha %meanin$ 3avi$ation' 3avi$ationem %#' Sarpa %meanin$ Sna*e' Serpentem %#' 3aas %means 3ose' 3asus %#' 1nami*a %means 1nonymous' 1nonymos %-' 3aama %means 3ame' 3omen %#' !anu %means First Human' 1shta %meanin$ .i$ht' "cto %#' Bar&ara %meanin$ Forei$n' Bar&aria %#' Dhama %meanin$ House' Domus %#' Danta %meanin$ Teeth' Dentis %#' D,ar %meanin$ Door' Doru Dasha %meanin$ Ten' Deca %-' !adhyam %meanin$ !edium' !edium %#' Kaal %meanin$ Time' Kalendae %#' Kri %meanin$ To Do' Creatus %#' !ishra %meanin$ !i2' !i2tus %#' !a %meanin$ !e4!y' !e %#' Pithr %meanin$ Father' Pater %#' Bhrathr %meanin$ Brother' Phrater %-' #o*a %meanin$ Place' #ocus %#' !aha %meanin$ -reat' !a$nus %#' !ala %meanin$ Dirt4Bad' !alus %#' !a*shi*aa %meanin$ Bee' !usca %#' %!eanin$ Fly' #erived English Word Co, !other -ene 12is 3avi$ation Serpent 3ose 1nonymous 3ame !an4!en4Human .i$ht Bar&arian Domicile Dental Door Deca !edium Calendar Create !i2 !e Father Brother #ocale !e$a !al as in !alicious5 !alnutrition5 !al(ormed etc !os6uito

!rta %meanin$ Dead' 3a %meanin$ 3o' 3a*ta %meanin$ 3i$ht' Paad %meanin$ Foot' Pancha %meanin$ Five' Parah %meanin$ /emote' Patha %meanin$ Path' /a7a 4 /aya %meanin$ Kin$' Sama %meanin$ Similar' Sapta %meanin$ Seven' Shar*ara %meanin$ Su$ar' Smi %meanin$ Smile'

!ortis %#' 3e 3octurnalis %#' Pedis %#' Pente %-' Pera %-' Pathes %-'

!urder 3o 3octurnal Ped as in Pedestrial5 Pedal etc Penta5 Five Far Path

/e$alis %#' /oyal Similis %#' Similar Septum %#' Seven Succarum Su$ar 4 Sucrose Smilen %#' Smile Stare %#' %meanin$ To SthaH %meanin$ Situated' Stand' Stay Svaad %meanin$ Tasty' Suavis %#' S,eet Tha %meanin$ That' Talis %#' That Tva %meanin$ Thee' Dih Thee 8achas %meanin$ Speech' 8ocem %#' 8oice 8ehere %meanin$ to Carry' 8ahaami %meanin$ Carry' %#' 8ehicle 8ama 4 8amati %meanin$ 8omit' 8omere %#' 8omit 8astr %meanin$ Cloth' 8estire %#' 8est 9auvana %meanin$ 9outh' 0uvenilis %#' 0uvenile 3aran$i %meanin$ "ran$e' 3aran7 "ran$e Pippali %meanin$ Pepper' Piperi %-' Pepper Chandana %meanin$ Sandal,ood' Santalon %-' Sandal,ood Candela %#' %meanin$ li$ht 4 Chandra %meanin$ !oon' torch' Candle Chatur %meanin$ Four' :uartus %#' :uarter Shunya %meanin$ ;ero' Cipher %1' ;ero a %pre(i2 meanin$ <not= e2> a %#'%-' %pre(i2 meanin$ a %pre(i2 meanin$ <not= e2> $ochara a$ochara' <not=' theiest?atheist an %pre(i2 meanin$ <not= un %#'%-' %pre(i2 meanin$ un %pre(i2 meanin$ <not= e2> e2> avashya anavashya' <not=' do?undo 1r7una %meanin$ Charm o( 1r$entinum Scienti(ic Silver' 1r$entinum %#' 3ame o( Silver 3ava %meanin$ 3e,' 3ovus %#' 3ova 3e, Ka(a %meanin$ !ucus' Cou$hen Cou$h !ithya %meanin$ #ie' !ythos %-' !yth Thri %meanin$ Three' Treis %-' Three !ush %meanin$ !ouse' !us %#' !ouse !ara$adum %meanin$ .merald' Smara$dus %#' .merald -hritam %meanin$ -hee' -hee Sr$alah %meanin$ 0ac*al' Sha$al %Persian' 0ac*al

3ila %meanin$ Dar* Blue' Sr$alah !an %!a as in !alaysia' %meanin$ !ind' +palah %meanin$ Precious Stone' 8rihis %meanin$ /ice' +palah %meanin$ Precious Stone' Bar&ar %meanin$ stammerin$' 0aanu %meanin$ *nee' Sunu %meanin$ Son or "((sprin$' -has %meanin$ eat' Samiti %meanin$ Committee' Sama %meanin$ Same'

3ila* %Persian' Sha$al %Persian' !ens %#' "palus %#' "ri@a %#' "palus %#' Bar&aros %-' -enu %#' Sunu %-erman' -rasa %-erman' committere %#' Sama@ %Proto -ermanic' #u&o %#atin and Proto -ermanic' I$nis %#' Herto %Proto -ermanic'

#ilac 0ac*al !ind "pal /ice "pal Bar&arian Knee Son -rass Committee Same #ove I$nite Heart 8an5 Wa$on 3erve5 3ervous They

#u&h %meanin$ Desire' 1$ni %meanin$ Fire' Hrt %meanin$ Heart' 9aana %meanin$ 7ourney5 ,a$on' Wa$en %-erman' 3ara %meanin$ 3erve' 3ervus %#' They %th pronounced as in thunder5 meanin$ they' Dei %-ermanic'

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