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Help[Facts] Re: Shubhrika or Shubrika
in reply to a message by spundan
Before asking questions on the board, please read the directions. In particular, please mention the cultural/religious/ethnic/linguistic context of the name you are interested in: the same sound can appear in more than one culture and may originate from completely different linguistic background. Sometimes, an example last name is sufficient; sometimes names of siblings/parents etc., other times whatever you know about the bearer might help.
I will assume you mean the North Indian, mainly Hindu, recently popular name shubhrikA. When used outside its original linguistic home, the voiced aspirate -bh- may be difficult to pronounce, and especially followed by the -r-, might lose its aspiration.
Though I do not know the Indo-european cognates, the root shubh is a very old one in Sanskrit (appears in the Rgveda), and meant to shine or beautify oneself depending on whether one used it in active or mediopassive voice. The actual meaning of these words is pretty difficult to translate today because there is ample indication that the lexical semantic space covered by words for beautiful, shining, white and auspicious overlapped strongly, so that instead of beautiful, in many contexts, auspicious would better express the meaning better. shubhrA' means something that shines, and is a pretty common word for white/beautiful applied to a woman in some north Indian languages, and was common as a name quite recently (the corresponding masculine shubhra' has been attested in classic literature as well; both shubhra and and the adjective shubha good/auspicious are still occasionally seen as male names). The alternate shubhri for shining is known since Rgvedic times, but I haven't seen it as a name. -ikA is the feminini/hypochoristic suffix giving shubhrikA (from sither shubhra' or shubhri) is attested as a word but is rare: it probably was picked up recently in India because -ikA became a popular name ending.
I will assume you mean the North Indian, mainly Hindu, recently popular name shubhrikA. When used outside its original linguistic home, the voiced aspirate -bh- may be difficult to pronounce, and especially followed by the -r-, might lose its aspiration.
Though I do not know the Indo-european cognates, the root shubh is a very old one in Sanskrit (appears in the Rgveda), and meant to shine or beautify oneself depending on whether one used it in active or mediopassive voice. The actual meaning of these words is pretty difficult to translate today because there is ample indication that the lexical semantic space covered by words for beautiful, shining, white and auspicious overlapped strongly, so that instead of beautiful, in many contexts, auspicious would better express the meaning better. shubhrA' means something that shines, and is a pretty common word for white/beautiful applied to a woman in some north Indian languages, and was common as a name quite recently (the corresponding masculine shubhra' has been attested in classic literature as well; both shubhra and and the adjective shubha good/auspicious are still occasionally seen as male names). The alternate shubhri for shining is known since Rgvedic times, but I haven't seen it as a name. -ikA is the feminini/hypochoristic suffix giving shubhrikA (from sither shubhra' or shubhri) is attested as a word but is rare: it probably was picked up recently in India because -ikA became a popular name ending.
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