# Hindi/Urdu: hijRa هيجڙا हीजड़ा hījṛā



## lcfatima

On wikipedia it says that the etymology of hijRa is from the Arabic triliteral root hjr (the same as in hijrat or muhaajir). Platts seems to sort of indicate the same thing.

I am a bit confused by this because Platts also says hijRa has a Persian and older Zend cognate as hiiz (P 
هيچ _heć [for eći = Zend aiva+ći; S. एव+कि; but cf. Zend naêci, 'nullus,' for_). How can hiiz be such an old cognate if hijRa is coming from Arabic hijrah? If it came from Arabic, how did the r go to R? It would seem more likely to me that hijRa is in fact and Indic word since it has a Zend cognate. But I can't find it or anything similar in the Sanskrit dictionary.


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## Wolverine9

Wikipedia is wrong.  _hijRaa _'eunuch' is an Indic word. cf.


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## lcfatima

Thanks for the info.


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## Faylasoof

lcfatima said:


> On wikipedia it says that the etymology of hijRa is from the Arabic triliteral root hjr (the same as in hijrat or muhaajir). Platts seems to sort of indicate the same thing.
> 
> I am a bit confused by this because Platts also says hijRa has a Persian and older Zend cognate as hiiz (P
> هيچ_heć [for eći = Zend aiva+ći; S. एव+कि; but cf. Zend naêci, 'nullus,' for_). How can hiiz be such an old cognate if hijRa is coming from Arabic hijrah? If it came from Arabic, how did the r go to R? It would seem more likely to me that hijRa is in fact and Indic word since it has a Zend cognate. But I can't find it or anything similar in the Sanskrit dictionary.


 Well, if Wiki says that then it is just wrong -- it can be awfully wrong at times! Platts is of course spot-on:

H 
هيجڙا* हीजड़ा _hījṛā (cf. P. hīz), s.m. A eunuch;—a hermaphrodite (i.q. hijṛā);—adj. Unmanly; pusillanimous, cowardly._

[* ھجڑا _hijRaa_]

While the other word is ہجرہ _hijrah_ :

P 
هجرت_hijrat _(for *A. هجرة*, v.n. fr. هجر; see hajr), s.f. Separation (of lovers or friends); departure (from one's country and friends);—emigration to Mecca, or from a country of infidels to a land of Muslims;—the Hijra (vulg. 'Hegira'), or flight of Muḥammad from Mecca to Medina (which happened on the 16th of July, A.D. 622, and, in the reign of the Caliph Omar, was ordered to be considered as the commencement of the Muḥammadan era):—hajrat, s.f. One year.

From the Arabic هجرة  we get the Persianized ہجرہ & ہجرت .


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## Qureshpor

lcfatima said:


> On wikipedia it says that the etymology of hijRa is from the Arabic triliteral root hjr (the same as in hijrat or muhaajir). Platts seems to sort of indicate the same thing.
> 
> I am a bit confused by this because Platts also says hijRa has a Persian and older Zend cognate as hiiz (P
> هيچ_heć [for eći = Zend aiva+ći; S. एव+कि; but cf. Zend naêci, 'nullus,' for_). How can hiiz be such an old cognate if hijRa is coming from Arabic hijrah? If it came from Arabic, how did the r go to R? It would seem more likely to me that hijRa is in fact and Indic word since it has a Zend cognate. But I can't find it or anything similar in the Sanskrit dictionary.


What Platts says may very well be true. I shall get back to this later. The word is "hiijRaa" by the way.


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## lcfatima

I saw hiijRa in Platts, also. I can't say I've ever heard it said that way.


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## Faylasoof

lcfatima said:


> I saw hiijRa in Platts, also. I can't say I've ever heard it said that way.


 Yes, we write it as _hiijRaa_ but I've always heard it as _hijRaa_ !

Platts has this too:

H 
هجڙا हिजड़ा _hijṛā, s.m.= _ هيجڙا_ hījṛā, q.v._


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## Qureshpor

مؤلف فرہنگ آصفیہ کے مطابق لفظ ہیجڑا کا مأخذ کچھ اِس طرح ہے۔

اصل میں ہیز تھا ۔ اِس میں رائے مثقلہ جو ہندی میں علامت تصغیر بالتحقیر ہے لگا کر ہیزڑا کر لیا جس طرح قصاب کو تحقیراً قصابڑا۔ نائی کو ناؤڑا۔ میو کو میوڑا۔ حکیم کو حکیمڑا کہتے ہیں، اِسی طرح ہیز کو ہیزڑا کر لیا۔ چونکہ جیم تازی اور زائے معجمہ کا باہم بدل ہے اور اہل ہند زائے معجنہ کی بجائےجیم تازی ہی بولتے ہیں پس اِس وجہ سے ہیزڑا کا ہیجڑا بن گیا۔

فارسی لغات میں لغت نامہ دہخدا ایک نمایاں مقام رکھتی ہے۔ اِس کے مطابق تفصیل اِن الفاظ میں بتائی گئی ہے۔

هیز. (ص ) حیز. (حاشیه ٔ فرهنگ اسدی ).* مخنث* . (برهان ) (فرهنگ اسدی ). بغا. (حاشیه ٔ فرهنگ اسدی ). حیز نیز گویند اما به زبان پهلوی حرف حا، کم آید. (حاشیه ٔ فرهنگ اسدی ). مخنث و پشت پائی . در فارسی «های » هوز با «حای » حطی بدل میشود. (برهان ) : 

گفتم همی چه گویی ای هیز گلخنی 
گفتا که چه شنیدی ای پیر مسجدی .

عسجدی

چه زنی طعنه که با هیزان هیزند همه 
که توئی هیز و توئی مسخره و شنگ و مشنگ .

خطیری از فرہنگ اسدی

یہاں بھی ہیز کے معنے وہی دیے گئے ہیں جو کہ ہیجڑا کے ہیں۔ آگے واللہ أعلم۔


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## fdb

The etymology of _hijṛā (hījṛā)_ is obscure. It is definitely not from Arabic _hijra_, nor from Persian _hēč _“nothing”. (Platts does not actually claim that it is from _hēč_; lcfatima has by oversight combined two consecutive but unconnected entries in Platts: هيجڙا and هيچ).The etymologies suggested by Turner (*_hijja_ etc.) all have *, in other words, they are reconstructed forms that do not actually occur in Sanskrit. On the other hand, the connection with Persian _hīz_ “effeminate, catamite”, as illustrated by the quotations in the Lughatnāma, is attractive. Maybe Persian _hīz_ was borrowed into Hindi as _hīj_, then extended to _hījṛā_?


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## lcfatima

That's interesting about the -Raa. Like bachhRaa or biluungRaa, I suppose.


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## Wolverine9

fdb said:


> The etymology of _hijṛā (hījṛā)_ is obscure. It is definitely not from Arabic _hijra_, nor from Persian _hēč _“nothing”. (Platts does not actually claim that it is from _hēč_; lcfatima has by oversight combined two consecutive but unconnected entries in Platts: هيجڙا and هيچ).The etymologies suggested by Turner (*_hijja_ etc.) all have *, in other words, they are reconstructed forms that do not actually occur in Sanskrit. On the other hand, the connection with Persian _hīz_ “effeminate, catamite”, as illustrated by the quotations in the Lughatnāma, is attractive. Maybe Persian _hīz_ was borrowed into Hindi as _hīj_, then extended to _hījṛā_?



I'm wondering if Turner had ruled out a borrowing from Persian _hīz _for some reason.  I've noticed he usually indicates if a word is borrowed from Persian for  reconstructed forms, actual Sanskrit words, and individual NIA words.  Some examples: 1, 2, 3.


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## fdb

lcfatima said:


> That's interesting about the -Raa. Like bachhRaa or biluungRaa, I suppose.



Precisely. _ṛā _seems to be a semi-productive suffix in Hindi.


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## marrish

fdb said:


> Precisely. _ṛā _seems to be a semi-productive suffix in Hindi.


Could you please tell me something more about semi-productive suffixes in Hindi? Please send me a PM as this would exceed this thread's scope.


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## fdb

lcfatima has mentioned two examples. Here are some others (Skt. > Hindi) that I found in Turner:

_thōba > thobṛā_
_pidda > pid__ṛā_
_p__ōṅga > pū̃g__ṛā_
_phakk > phã̄k__ṛā_
_lucca > __luc__ṛā_


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## Dib

Are you sure those words are Sanskrit? I'd rather guess they are (older) Hindi > Hindi.


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## Wolverine9

^ They're reconstructed forms for OIA that are unattested in Sanskrit.


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## Dib

I am afraid it will be off-topic here, but I doubt Turner claims them to be OIA (reconstructed or attested). They look rather MIA or early NIA, in any case. That's why I asked.


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## fdb

Yes, Wolverine and Dib, you are both perfectly right. I should have put a * before each one of the forms in the first column. But, in defence, may I say that my intention was only to illustrate the Hindi (diminutive? derogative?) suffix -_ṛ__ā_.


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## Dib

Thanks, fdb, for your clarification. It's just some not-so-significant nitty-gritty, anyway.


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## mundiya

Hi,

Oxford English Dictionary (below) has an explanation for "hijRaa"

_<  Hindi hijṛā eunuch (also as adjective in sense ‘impotent’), perhaps (via Marathi and Oriya)  <  Kannada heṇṇiga impotent man, coward, ultimately  <  Tamil peṇṭan hermaphrodite, eunuch, masculine form corresponding to peṇṭu woman._


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## fdb

Thank you, mundia, for this. The OED (on-line version; this entry is not yet in the printed text) is really not the first place I would normally look for a Hindi etymology.

What is indubitably correct is that Dravidian _p_- often (though not always) becomes _h_- in Kannada. There is thus no problem with the correspondence of Tamil _peṇ_, _peṇṭu_ ‘woman, wife’, _peṇṭaṉ_ ‘hermaphrodite, eunuch’, _peṇṇaṉ_ ‘effeminate man’, with Kannada _peṇ_, _peṇṇu_, _peṇḍa_ ‘woman’, _heṇṇiga_ ‘impotent man, coward’, _heṇṇuga_ ‘pimp’, etc. (Burrow/Emeneau 4395). But how do we get from Kannada _heṇṇiga_ to Hindi _hī̆jṛā_? The OED article suggests that it is “via Marathi and Oriya”. But Oriya is spoken on the East coast of India, between Bengali and Telugu. It is contiguous neither with Kannada nor with Marathi. So it is most difficult to see how Oriya can have anything to do with this. This leaves us with Kannada _heṇṇiga_, Marathi _hij̈ḍā _and Hindi _hī̆jṛā_, which have nothing in common other than the initial _h_-.


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## mundiya

Thank you fdb saahib.  With your explanation _heṇṇiga to __hī̆jṛā _does seem far fetched.


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