Announcing the classical status of Kannada and Telugu, a Times of India report says, "Govind Pai proved that Kannada phrases like 'Mindeya?' ('Have you had bath?') were used in a Greek play of 2nd century BC."
'Proved', eh? The Wikipedia article on Kannada does not seem to've heard of this Greek connection.
However, Kamat's Potpourri - that fascinating "hodge-podge of Indian history, arts and culture" - does mention that the remarkable Pai identified "Kannada names from ancient Greek classics including Ptolemy".
Caprice.
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I just learned an interesting bit of word history via Merriam-Webster’s
delightfully discursive entry for caprice: Etymology borrowed from French,
going ba...
18 hours ago