Pati (title)

Pati (Hindustani: पति, پتی) is a title meaning "master" or "lord". The word is in common usage in the Indian subcontinent today. Etymologically, the word derives from the Indo-European language family and finds references in various classical Indo-Iranian languages, including Sanskrit, Old Persian language and Avestan.[1] In modern-day Hindustani and other Indian languages, pati and patni have taken on the meanings of husband and wife respectively when used as standalone words.[2] The feminine equivalent in Indo-Aryan languages is patni (literally, "mistress" or "lady"). The term pati is frequently used as a suffix, e.g. lakhpati (meaning, master of a lakh rupees).[2]

Modern usage
  • As a standalone term indicating husband, pati
  • In an official titles, e.g. Rashtra-pati (राष्ट्रपति, National President), Sena-pati (सेनापति, General of an Army, Master of an Army)
  • In adjectives, e.g. crore-pati (करोड़पति, کروڑپتی, rich, master of a crore rupees), "lakh-pati" (लखपति, rich person, master of a lakh Rupees).
  • As a descriptive term, e.g. dampati (married couple, master and mistress of the house)
  • In names and surnames. It has been in usage in names in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times. Eg. Ganapati or Ganapathy (गणपति, Gana+Pati. Lord of the people/group/multitudes/categorical system); Bhupathy (Mahesh Bhupathy (भूपति, Bhu +Pati. Lord of the earth/soil)

Etymology and cognates

The term pati is believed to originate from the Proto-Indo-European language.[3] Older Persian languages, such as Avestan, use the term pati or paiti as a title extensively, e.g. dmana-paiti (master of the house, similar to Sanskrit dam-pati).[1][3]

In Sanskrit, it is 'pat-' when uncompounded and meaning"husband" instrumental case p/atyā-; dative case p/atye-; genitive case ablative p/atyur-; locative case p/atyau-; But when meaning"lord, master", and in fine compositi or 'at the end of a compound' regularly inflected with exceptions; ) a master, owner, possessor, lord, ruler, sovereign etc. For example, in the Vedas, we come across words such as Brhas –pati, Praja – pati, Vachas –pati, Pasu – pati, Apam –pati, Bhu pati, Tridasa – pati and Nr - pati. Here the 'pati’' is suffix translated as “Lord of …………..”

In several Indo-European languages, cognate terms exist in varying forms (often as a suffix), for instance in the English word "despot" from the Greek δεσ-πότης, meaning "master, despot, lord, owner."[1] In Latin, the term changed meaning from master to able, and is "an example of a substantive coming to be used as an adjective," resulting in English words such as potent, potential and potentate.[4] In Lithuanian, pats as a standalone word came to mean husband, himself (patis in Old Lithuanian), as did pati in Hindi/ Hindustani.[4]

Common usage
gollark: Oh, this is cool, there are multiple projects for pulling from my specific brand of home routing device somehow?
gollark: I don't know what the latency one is actually measuring, but you can see it.
gollark: https://stats.osmarks.net/d/2VpAanYMz/ircd?orgId=1
gollark: They're on grafana.
gollark: Not even APIONET is safe from graphing.

References
  1. Roger D. Woodard, Indo-European sacred space: Vedic and Roman cult, University of Illinois Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-252-02988-2, ... in Iran ... dmana-paiti, the vis-paiti, the zantu-paiti, and the dahyu-paiti ... Vedic dam-pati- 'master of the house', cognate to Avestan dmana-paiti, Greek preserves δεσ-πότης 'master, despot, lord, owner'; the Avestan vis-paiti finds his etymological counterpart not only in Vedia vis-pati- 'chief of the settlement, lord of the house', but in Lithuanian vies-pats 'lord' ...
  2. John T. Platts, A Dictionary Of Urdu, Classical Hindi And English, Kessinger Publishing, 2004, ISBN 978-0-7661-9231-7, ... lakh-pati, or lakh-patl, or lakh-pat, sm Owner of a lac (of rupees), a millionaire ...
  3. Benjamin W. Fortson, Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, John Wiley and Sons, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4051-8896-8, ... 'lord of the house' < Indo-Ir. *dams pati-, PIE *dems potis ...
  4. Peter Giles, A short manual of comparative philology for classical students, Macmillan and Co., 1895, ... in Lithuanian pats (older patis), which means husband or lord and is identical with the Greek , Skt. patis and Latin potis (no longer a substantive) ... The Latin form of this word - potis - gives us an example of a substantive coming to be used as an adjective. In the verb possum, a corruption of potis sum, the original sense 'I am master' has faded into the vaguer 'I am able' ...


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