इस्त्री

Why “इस्त्री” and not “Ferro”

We have seen in the ealier piece ऋऌक् how certain sound patterns (वर्ण) have inherant meanings and their meanings are mutation proof during early stage of language evolution.

Here is one more living example of how the neural connection between वर्ण and its meaning (अर्थ) are hard wired at its core.

It is said that cloths iron was brought to India by portugese.
. The tool - cloths iron - was a new machine and a new word was coined in Indian languages for the instrument. The enwly coined word is “इस्त्री”.

That meaning is said to have came from introduction of iorning cloths. some europeans have described it as originating from portugese word - from estirar, that has its roots in Old Persian via Latin. As Old Persian (Persians being असुर lineage of वैदिक people) is from Sanskrit, Original root would have been Sanskrit. It is a different story that portugese itself ended up calling Iron “Ferro” ignoring istirar.

Sanskrit there is a word called स्त्री (strī) . This word comes from root स्तृ. The root means - gather that superior skin/cloth. and hence it means spreading a cloth/hyde. from that act, meaning of स्तृ is derived as - to spread, to cover and protect, to envelop. and स्त्री is objectification of that act because इ as स्वर प्रत्यय indicates objectification. Thus स्त्री means object/objective of spreaading hyde.

Now think about what an iron does:
it spreads the cloth, stretches out wrinkles, covers the surface with smooth heat.
Same gesture as the ancient root: स्तृ.

Literal meaning of इस्त्री is इ + स्त्री। इ as स्वर विभक्ति means objectification. स्त्री in turn means act of spreading. because स्त्री is itself स्तृञ् + इ = objectification of act of स्तृञ्. So स्त्री means objectification of spreading surface/cloth = act of spreading. and इस्त्री means objectification of act of spreading and hence iron.

For Indian langiages, इस्त्री is a new word coined only in last ~200 years. It gained circulation because it got built on existing concept of स्तृ. And स्तृ was existing because its constituents, like we saw in case of ऋ and ऌ, had emerged from neural connection based meanings.