Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Today's Tamil word - 6th May 2020 - காட்டம்

Difficult - கஷ்டம்/கடினம்

Original Tamil word - காட்டம்

It is an interesting word. The Tamil word காட்டம் is what went to Sanskrit and became கஷ்டம் in the first place.

காட்டம் comes from the Tamil root word கடு which means agony/pain. You would have heard the usage of the word கடுப்பு in our everyday conversations' of today (கடுப்பு ஆனான்; உடம்பு கடுத்தது).

Today, sometimes காட்டம் is used in the meaning of strong/hot (இன்றைக்கு வெயில் காட்டமாக இருக்கிறது).

But the original Tamil meaning of காட்டம் - 'pain/agony due to difficulty' has been lost after it gave birth to the word கஷ்டம் in Sanskrit and later became கடினம் when it came back into Tamil due to Sanskrit's religious influence.

As time went by, கஷ்டம்/கடினம் became the more frequently word used for 'difficulty' in Tamil, thereby resulting in making the derived meaning (hot/strong) for காட்டம் more relevant today than its original meaning.

அண. நாகப்பன்



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