Sanskrit

Noun

वर • ‎(vára) m

1. "environing", "enclosing", circumference, space, room (RV., AV., TS.)

   वर आ पृथिव्याः ‎(vára ā́ pṛthivyā́ḥ) — on the wide earth

2. stopping, checking (RV. I, 143, 5)

Declension

Etymology 2

From the verbal root वृणोति ‎(√vṛ, “to choose, select”).

Adjective

वर • ‎(vará)

1. choosing

   पतिंवरा ‎(patiṃ-varā) — a woman who chooses her husband for herself

   स्वयंवरा ‎(svayaṃ-varā) — self-choice, the election of a husband by a princess or daughter of a kṣatriya at a public assembly of suitors

Declension

Noun

वर • ‎(vará) m

1. "chooser", one who solicits a girl in marriage, suitor, lover, bridegroom, husband (rarely "son-in-law") (RV. etc.)
2. a bridegroom's friend (MW.)
3. a dissolute man (= वित ‎(vita) or षिड्ग ‎(ṣiḍga)) (L.)

Declension

Adjective

वर • ‎(vára)

1. "select", choicest, valuable, precious, best, most excellent or eminent among (genitive, locative, ablative, or compound) or for (genitive) (ŚrS., MBh. etc.)
2. (at the end of a compound) royal, princely (Jātakam.)
3. better, preferable, better than (ablative, rarely genitive) or among (ablative) (Mn., MBh. etc.)
4. eldest (W.)

Declension

Noun

वर • ‎(vára) m

1. boon, gift, reward, benefit, blessing, favour (RV. etc.)

   वराय ‎(várāya), वरम् आ ‎(váram ā́), प्रति वरम् ‎(práti váram) or वरं वरम् ‎(váraṃ varam) — according to wish, to one's heart's content

   मद्वरात् ‎(mad-varāt) — in consequence of the boon granted by me

   váraṃ-√vṛ — to choose a boon

   varaṃ-√yāc or ā-√kāṅkṣ or √brū or causative of pra-√arth — to prefer a request

   váraṃ √dā, varam pra-√dā or pra-√yam — to grant a boon or blessing

   varaṃ-√labh — to receive a boon or reward

2. benefit, advantage, privilege (Daś.)
3. charity, alms (VarBṛS.)
4. dowry (Pañcat.)
5. a kind of grain (= वरत ‎(varata)) (KātyŚr., Sch.)
6. bdellium (L.)
7. sparrow (L.)
8. name of a son of श्वफल्क ‎(śvaphalka) (VP.)
9. saffron (BhP.) (in compounds not always separable from the homographic word meaning "enclosing, etc")

Declension

Descendants

• Khmer: ព្រះ ‎(preah) "Lord"
• Telugu: వరము ‎(varamu), వరుడు ‎(varuḍu)
  • Thai: พระ ‎(phra) "royal"
• Thai: พร ‎(phon) "blessing"

References

• Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1898) A Sanskrit-English dictionary etymologically and philologically arranged with special reference to cognate Indo-European languages, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pages 0921, 0922