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orabbhiko

orabbhika

masc nom sg of orabbhika (noun)

1. sheep farmer; sheep dealer; sheep butcher

Built from

• ora — root · sheep
  The animal name, cognate with Sanskrit ura, Greek ovis, Latin ovis, and English ewe, from Indo-European *owis. The word is ancient across Indo-European languages.
• bhi — prefix · tend, work
  This segment, though fossilized in the agent suffix -abhika, derives from roots meaning 'to be' or 'to make/work', commonly used to form occupational terms from animal or object names.
• ka — ending · agent nominalizer
  This suffix forms agent nouns (one who works with, tends, or deals in the preceding noun), nominalized here for masculine singular nominative case.

Analysis. ora-bbhika: ora (sheep) + abhika (one who tends or works with), a denominative agent noun formed from the animal name.

Etymology. ora (sheep) is cognate with Sanskrit ura, Greek ovis (Latin ovis), and English ewe — all descending from the Indo-European root *owis. The suffix -abhika is an agent-forming suffix (one who works with or tends something), comparable to Latin -ficus (worker) and English -man.

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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