anusvara

noun

an·us·va·ra

ˌanəsˈvärə,

ˌän-

plural -s

: a Sanskrit postvocalic nasal sound or group of sounds occurring in the interior of a morpheme only before ś, ṣ, s, or h and at the end of a morpheme only before an initial consonant of a following morpheme

: a sign used in writing Sanskrit to represent the anusvara sound or sounds and in some manuscripts and editions certain other postvocalic nasal sounds

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Sanskrit anusvāra-, from anu- "after, along" + svāra- "sound, accent," lengthened-grade noun derivative of svarati "(s/he) sounds, sings"

First Known Use

1820, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of anusvara was in 1820

See more words from the same year