Everything about Bahuvrihi totally explained
A
bahuvrīhí (बहुव्रीहि), or
bahuvrihi compound (also
exocentric compound), is a type of
nominal compound that refers to something that isn't specified by any of its parts by themselves (for example, it's
headless or
exocentric, its core semantic value being subsumed by an elliptical or 'external' semantic value so that the compound isn't a
hyponym of the head), especially a compound that refers to a possessor of an object specified: a bahuvrihi compound XY tends to mean someone or something which has a Y, and that Y has the characteristic X. For instance, a
sabertooth (
smil-odon) is neither a
saber nor a
tooth: it's an extinct feline with saber-like fangs. English bahuvrihis often describe people by referring to specific properties:
flatfoot,
half-wit,
highbrow,
lowlife,
redhead,
tenderfoot,
longlegs, and
white-collar. Many of these are
colloquial,
pejorative, or both.
The term
bahuvrihi was first used by Sanskrit grammarians, and is a specific
Sanskrit example: a compound consisting of
bahu (
much) and
vrihi (
rice); the compound connotes a rich man, one who has "much rice".
The last constituent in a Sanskrit bahuvrihi is a noun, more strictly: a nominal
stem. The whole compound is an adjective and agrees in gender and number with the head. The
accent is regularly on the first member (
tatpurusha rāja-pútra "a king's son", but bahuvrihi
rājá-putra "having kings as sons" (viz
rājá-putra- (m.) "father of kings",
rājá-putrā- (f.) "mother of kings"), with the exception of a number of non-nominal prefixes such as the
privative a; the word "bahuvrīhí" is itself likewise an exception to this rule.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Bahuvrihi'.
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