कपट

Of unclear origin.

Pokorny tentatively derives the word from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂emp-, from *kh₂em- (“bend, curve”); compare Albanian këmbë (“leg, foot”).^[1]

Mayrhofer finds the above derivation unconvincing; he originally preferred taking the word as a Dravidian borrowing, with original form *kapardu (whence perhaps कपर्द (kaparda)), comparing the term to कूट (kūṭa, “false”) and Tamil கோடு (kōṭu, “crookedness, shell”).^[2] However, he had come to find the Dravidian connection less convincing over time.^[3]

कपट • (kapaṭa) stem, m or n

1. fraud, deceit, cheating, circumvention

   Synonyms: धोखा (dhokhā), छल (chala)

• Tamil: கபடம் (kapaṭam)

• Monier Williams (1899) “कपट”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, , new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 250/1.