रात्रि

Learned borrowing from Sanskrit रात्रि॑ (rā́tri). Doublet of रात (rāt).

• (Delhi) IPA^(key): /ɾɑːt̪.ɾiː/,

रात्रि • (rātri) f

1. night

   Synonyms: रात (rāt), निशा (niśā), रजनी (rajnī)

Attested from the Middle Vedic period onwards, the term arose as a dialectal variant of an older रात्री (rā́trī). The Rigveda only attests रात्री (rā́trī) but the Vedic texts that came after the Rigveda attest both the variants. In Classical Sanskrit literature, only रात्रि (rātri) is attested and all the Middle Indo-Aryan reflexes are formally descended from this variant, suggesting that the older form रात्री (rā́trī) completely fell out of use by the end of the Vedic period.

Although not common, variations of a similar nature have also been observed in नारी (nā́rī) ~ नारि (nā́ri) and नप्ती (naptī́) ~ नप्ति (naptí). The presence of such alteration in other languages (see नप्ति (napti)) suggests that such variants with shortened vowels are not completely unetymological and may have existed as dialectal variants in Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Indo-European. For further etymology and cognates, see रात्री (rā́trī).

• (Vedic) IPA^(key): /ɾɑ́ːt.ɾi/
• (Classical Sanskrit) IPA^(key): /ˈɾɑːt̪.ɾi/

रात्रि॑ • (rā́tri) stem, f

1. night

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:रात्रि

   • c. 1200 BCE – 1000 BCE, Atharvaveda 16.7:

     यददोअदो अभ्यगछं यद्दोषा यत्पूर्वां रात्रिम् ॥
     यज्जाग्रद्यत्सुप्तो यद्दिवा यन् नक्तम् ॥
     यदहरहरभिगछामि तस्मादेनमव दये ॥
     तं जहि तेन मन्दस्व तस्य पृष्टीरपि शृणीहि ॥
     स मा जीवीत्तं प्राणो जहातु ॥

     yadadoado abhyagachaṃ yaddoṣā yatpūrvāṃ rātrim.
     yajjāgradyatsupto yaddivā yan naktam.
     yadaharaharabhigachāmi tasmādenamava daye.
     taṃ jahi tena mandasva tasya pṛṣṭīrapi śṛṇīhi.
     sa mā jīvīttaṃ prāṇo jahātu.

     Whatever I have met with, whether at dusk or during early night,
     Whether waking or sleeping, whether by day or by night.
     Whether I meet with it day by day, from that do I bribe him away.
     Slay him; rejoice in this; crush his ribs.
     Let him not live. Let the breath of life forsake him.

Borrowed terms

• नक्ति (nákti)
• क्षप् (kṣáp)

• Monier Williams (1899) “रात्रि”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, , new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 876, column 1.