Sanskrit Roots & Shared Word Families
Hindi contains many words inherited from or formed with Sanskrit roots. Learning these roots makes unfamiliar Hindi words easier to understand.
त्रि (tri) means “three”
The Sanskrit word त्रि (tri) means three. It appears at the beginning of many compound words:
For example, त्रिदेव (Tridev) literally means “three gods” or “three deities.”
| Word | Parts | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| त्रिदेव | त्रि (three) + देव (deity) | The three principal deities: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva |
| त्रिभुज | त्रि (three) + भुज (side or arm) | Triangle; a shape with three sides |
| त्रिकोण | त्रि (three) + कोण (angle) | Triangle; a shape with three angles |
| त्रिमूर्ति | त्रि (three) + मूर्ति (form) | Three forms; another name for the divine triad |
| त्रिलोक | त्रि (three) + लोक (world) | The three worlds in Indian tradition |
| त्रिकाल | त्रि (three) + काल (time) | Past, present, and future |
The English prefix tri- also means “three,” as in triangle, tricycle, and trio. English did not receive this prefix from Hindi. Sanskrit tri, Greek treis, Latin tres, and English three are relatives inherited through different branches of the older Indo-European language family.
नामन् became नाम
The Sanskrit word नामन् (nāman) means “name.” In modern Hindi, it became नाम (naam) . English name, German Name, Latin nomen, and Sanskrit nāman are cognates: related words that descend from an older shared ancestor.
| Sanskrit | Modern Hindi | English relative | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| नामन् (nāman) | नाम (naam) | name | name |
| मातृ (mātṛ) | माता (maata) | mother | mother |
| पितृ (pitṛ) | पिता (pita) | father | father |
| भ्रातृ (bhrātṛ) | भाई (bhaai) | brother | brother |
| द्वि (dvi) | दो (do) | two | two |
| नव (nava) | नौ (nau) | nine | nine |
A cognate is not necessarily a borrowed word. Cognates can develop independently in related languages from the same much older source.
Language and script are different
Hindi and Sanskrit are languages. Devanagari is a writing system, or script, used to write both languages as well as Marathi, Nepali, and several others.
It is therefore more accurate to say:
- Sanskrit is an ancient Indo-Aryan language.
- Hindi is a modern Indo-Aryan language with vocabulary from Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, English, and other sources.
- Devanagari is an old script tradition, not a spoken language.
- Many modern Indo-Aryan languages developed through Middle Indo-Aryan languages such as the Prakrits, with Sanskrit remaining a major literary and scholarly influence.
- English and Hindi are distant relatives within the Indo-European language family, but English did not evolve from Hindi or Devanagari.
A simplified language family
Proto-Indo-European
├── Indo-Iranian
│ └── Indo-Aryan
│ ├── Old Indo-Aryan: Vedic and Classical Sanskrit
│ ├── Middle Indo-Aryan: Prakrits and Apabhramsha
│ └── Modern Indo-Aryan: Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Nepali...
└── Germanic
└── EnglishTry breaking words apart
Use a familiar root to predict each meaning:
- त्रिभाषी — त्रि (three) + भाषी (language-speaking): a person who speaks three languages.
- त्रिवर्षीय — त्रि (three) + वर्षीय (year-long): lasting three years.
- त्रिपक्षीय — त्रि (three) + पक्षीय (sided/party): involving three sides or parties.
Next, continue to The Hindi Alphabet.