Etymology
The word daṇḍa literally means "stick, staff, rod, pole, cudgel, club", and is also used in the sense of "tusk", "trunk", "stalk, stem", or "handle".
As a unit of length, it corresponds to four hastas "hands". The term can also refer to a sceptre as a symbol of power and sovereignty, and expresses "power over" in compounds, also on the sense of judicial authority and punishment (chastisement, imprisonment, etc.) and also including the sense "control, restraint, arrest, cessation" as in vāg-daṇḍa, karma-daṇḍa, mano-daṇḍa, etc.
It is also a slang for penis: this usage came to prominence in the "competitive mothers" sketches in the comedy show Goodness Gracious Me.
Read more about this topic: Danda
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)