bahuvrihi

ba·hu·vri·hi

noun

pl. ba·hu·vri·his

A compound word functioning as an adjective whose last element is in origin a noun. For example, in the phrase high-fiber diet , the compound high-fiber is a bahuvrihi modifying diet that ends in the noun fiber.

Origin of bahuvrihi

Sanskrit bahuvrīhih having much rice (an example of the type) bahu- much vrīhih rice

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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"bahuvrihi." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 28 May 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/bahuvrihi>.

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Noun

(plural bahuvrihis)

(linguistics) A type of nominal compound in which the first part modifies the second and neither part alone conveys the intended meaning.

Origin

From Sanskrit à¤¬à¤¹à¥à¤µà¥à¤°à¥€à¤¹à¤¿ (bahÃº-vrÄ«hi, “much rice"), itself a bahuvrihi from à¤¬à¤¹à¥ (bahu, “much") and à¤µà¥à¤°à¥€à¤¹à¤¿ (vrÄ«hi, “rice"), referring neither to much nor to rice, but to a person who has much rice, i.e. a rich man, one who has "much rice".

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.