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vacchatare

vacchatara

masc acc pl of vacchatara (noun); masc loc sg of vacchatara (noun)

1. young bull; bullock; lit. more than a calf

Built from

• vaccha — root · calf
  From Indo-European *vats- 'to increase'; Sanskrit vatsa- and Pali vaccha- both denote a young bovine animal, originally 'the growing one'.
• -tara — ending · comparative
  The comparative suffix -tara (cognate with Latin -tor, Greek -teros, English -er) marks a degree between two points; here, a beast more developed than a calf but not yet fully grown.

Analysis. vaccha- (calf) + -tara (comparative suffix); lit. 'more than a calf', i.e. a young bull intermediate between calf and full-grown ox.

Etymology. vaccha- is cognate with Sanskrit vatsa- 'calf', both from a root *vats- meaning 'to increase, grow'; the comparative -tara (like Latin -tor, English -er) extends the sense from a simple calf to one that has grown somewhat, hence 'bullock'. The word appears also in Vedic Sanskrit vatsá-.

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

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