Know the Etymology: 285
Place Name of the Day: Monday, 09 September 2013

Dæla-thura

தெ₃[æ]லதுர
Dæatura

Dæla+thura

The spot to get into water to lay nets

Dæla

(singular), Dæl (plural): Net (Sinhala); Also Dæli: Net, beard, bud (Sinhala); 1. Jaala: Net, snare (Sanskrit, CDIAL 5213); 2. To'l'la: Snare, trap (Malayalam, DED 3531); Tho'lku: Net (Tamil, DED 3531); 3. Tha'lai: (verb) to fasten, bind, chain, entangle, confine, restrain; (noun) fastening, cord, rope (Tamil, DED 3133); Da'le: Loop of rope, noose (Kodagu, DED 3133); Cognates found in 8 Dravidian languages; 4. Chali, Challu: (verb) To sift; Challadai: (noun) Sieve (Tamil, DED 2370); Callata: A large sieve (Malayalam (DED 2370); Jallisu: (verb) To sift (Kannada DED 2370); Jallade: Sieve (Kannada, Telugu, DED 2370)

Thura

also, Dura, Tara: Port, harbour, seaside place, point to get into water (Sinhala, only in place names); Thu'rai: Seaport, harbour, bathing ghat, place for washing cloths, frequented place, place of meeting, way, path, sea, river, place, location, situation, branch of knowledge (Tamil, DED 3370); Tura: Frequented place, rendezvous, harbour, place for washing cloths, natural pond or cavern (Malayalam, DED 3370)

Dæla in Sinhala means a net, commonly a fishing-net. Dæl is the plural form of the word. In Roman script both are often written as Dela and Del.

Dæla could be etymologically traced to both Indo-Aryan and Dravidian.

In Sanskrit/ Indo-Aryan, Jaala is the corresponding word, meaning a net or snare (CDIAL 5213). J becoming D is a common feature in Sinhala.

The cognate in Tamil/ Dravidian, found both in its verb and noun forms, is the word Tha'lai, meaning a cord, rope, fastening, entangling, confining, binding etc. (DED 3133). A cognate Da'le in Kodagu, related to the same Dravidian root, means a loop of rope or noose (DED 3133).

Tho'l'la in Malayalam and Tho'lku in Old Tamil, taken as Dravidian words, directly mean a net (DED 3531, Kamparaamaaya'nam, Aara'nya Kaa'ndam, 13: 44).

Chali as verb meaning to sift and Challadai as noun meaning a sieve in Tamil/ Dravidian (DED 2370) could also be etymologically connected to Dæla/ Dæl in Sinhala.

Another word Dæli in Sinhala, related to Dæla/ Dæal, also means a net. But at the same time the word means a beard, bud and sprout too. One could see how the Sinhala word Dæli, in the above said shades of meanings, corresponds to three different words in Tamil: Tha'lai (binding), Thaadi (beard; D > L change) and Tha'lir (bud, sprout etc)

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Thura, Dura and Tara, meaning a coastal place, port, harbour, a spot to get into water etc., come only in the Sinhala place names. The components correspond to the Tamil/ Dravidian word Thu'rai, meaning the same (DED 3370).

See earlier columns for etymological discussions on Thura/ Thu'rai and related place names in Tamil and Sinhala.

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Dæla-thura is a coastal place in Wattala division of Gampaha district.

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Some related place names:

Dæl-thara: The place to get into water to lay nets; Kesbewa division, Colombo district. The place is on the banks of a backwater called Bolgoda Lake

Dael-galla: The rocks (in the sea or coastal backwaters) to lay nets; Devinuwara division, Matara district

First published: Monday, 09 September 2013, 18:55