Etymology
The term kalaripayattu is a tatpurusha compound from the words kalari (Malayalam:കളരി) meaning school or gymnasium and payattu (Malayalam:പയററ്) derived from payattuka meaning to "fight/ exercise" or "to put hard work into". In Tamil, kalari payattu is a compound of களம் (field; may be, battle field) and பயில் (study / learn, as in பயிற்சி - teaching / பயின்றான் - he learnt).
Belying the assumption that the compound itself might have an equally antique use as the singular kalari and payattu, the unpublished Malayalam Lexicon notes that the earliest use of the compound, kalarippayattu is in Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer's early twentieth century drama Amba when it is probable that the systems of martial practice assumed a structure and style akin those extant today. M.D. Raghavan has suggested that kalari was derived from the Sanskrit khalrikג (parade ground, arena) while Burrow shares the generally accepted opinion that khalrikג and its root, khala- (threshing floor) are Dravidian loan words.
Read more about this topic: Kalaripayattu
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“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)
“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)