Prakrit
[prah-krit, -kreet]
- any of the vernacular Indic languages of the ancient and medieval periods, as distinguished from Sanskrit.
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Origin of Prakrit
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for prakrit
Historical Examples
The syllable ava was transformed in Prakrit into o, and the ta into da.
Sagas from the Far EastVarious
The synthetic declension of Sanskrit and Prakrit has disappeared.
It is not however a derivative of this Prakrit but parallel to it and in some words presents older forms.
The discovery near Khotan of official documents written in Prakrit makes colonization as well as religious missions probable.
The first Indian colonists seem to have introduced a Prakrit dialect.
Prakrit
- any of the vernacular Indic languages as distinguished from Sanskrit: spoken from about 300 bc to the Middle AgesSee also Pali
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Word Origin
C18: from Sanskrit prāktra original, from pra- before + kr to do, make + -ta indicating a participle
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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Word Origin and History for prakrit
Prakrit
n.
popular dialect of ancient northern and central India (distinguished from Sanskrit), sometimes also applied to modern languages, 1766, from Sanskrit prakrta- "natural, original" (opposed to samskrta- "prepared, refined"), from pra- "before, forward, forth" (see pro-) + krta- "to make, do, perform," from PIE root *k(w)er- "to make, form" (related to karma).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper