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vāyato

vāya

nt abl sg of vāya (noun); masc abl sg of vāya (noun); masc abl pl of vāya (noun); masc dat sg of vāyanta (prp); …

1. vāya (nt): wind; air
2. vāya (masc): weaver; weaving
3. vāyato (masc): as wind
4. vāyanta (prp): blowing
5. vāyas (masc): air; wind
6. vāyato (masc): from air; apart from wind
7. vāyanta (prp): smelling; emitting an odour (from)

Built from

• vāya — root · wind; weave
  Sanskrit vāyu (wind) and √vā (to weave) both descend from *h₂weg- (to blow, move). The concrete image of air and wind motion underlies both senses: wind as moving air, weaving as the to-and-fro motion of the shuttle.
• -to — ending · ablative sg / dative sg
  The ending -to marks ablative singular on neuter nouns ('from wind, by wind') or dative/ablative singular on masculine nouns and participles ('to/from the weaver', 'to/from the one blowing'). It anchors the noun in the clause's relational grammar.

Analysis. vāya- is the root noun meaning wind or weaver; -to is the ablative singular ending (neut) or dative singular ending (masc), or part of the participial stem vāyanta- (blowing, emitting odour). The form vāyato may represent wind as an instrumental or ablative force ('by wind', 'from wind'), or a masculine animate agent ('the weaver', 'the one blowing').

Etymology. vāya (wind, air) connects to Sanskrit vāyu- (wind, god of wind) and Indo-European *h₂weg- (to blow, move). The weaver sense arises from the root √vā (to weave), which shares the same ancient root family. Related: English "wave", German "wehen" (to blow).

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

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