noun

1. the classical Old Indic literary language, as cultivated from the 4th cent. onward: because of the antiquity of its written expression and the detailed descriptive analysis it received in the Sutras of the Hindu grammarian Pānini (end of the 4th cent. ), Sanskrit was used as a major source of data in the origin and development of Indo-European comparative linguistics
2. loosely any written form of Old Indic, including Vedic

Etymology: < Sans saṃskṛta, lit., made together, well arranged < saṃ-, together (see same) + -kṛta, made < IE base *kwer-, to make > MIr creth, poetry: so called in distinction to Prākrit, lit., the common (spoken) language

adjective