काल

• (Delhi Hindi) IPA^(key): /kɑːl/, [käːl]

Borrowed from Sanskrit काल (kālá).

काल • (kāl) m (Urdu spelling کال‎)

1. time (as a concept)
2. era, epoch, age, period
   • 2020 February 11, विनीत कुमार [vinīt kumār], “आज का पंचांग: राहु काल और शुभ मुहूर्त का आज क्या है समय, पढ़ें 11 फरवरी का पंचांग [āj kā pañcāṅg: rāhu kāl aur śubh muhūrt kā āj kyā hai samay, paṛhẽ 11 pharavrī kā pañcāṅg]”, in Lokmat News Hindi‎:

     देश की राजधानी नई दिल्ली में राहु काल दोपहर बाद 03.22 बजे से शुरू होगा और ये 04.45 बजे तक रहेगा।

     deś kī rājdhānī naī dillī mẽ rāhu kāl dophar bād 03.22 baje se śurū hogā aur ye 04.45 baje tak rahegā.

     In New Delhi, the nation's capital, the Rahu period [an astrologically inauspicious time] will begin at 3:22 in the afternoon and it will remain until 4:45.

3. (Hinduism) death (personified as Yama)
   • 2020 February 12, “जेल में बंद पुत्र से मिलकर लौट रही मां व भाई काल के गाल में समाए [jel mẽ band putra se milkar lauṭ rahī mā̃ va bhāī kāl ke gāl mẽ samāe]”, in Dainik Jagran‎:

     […] तभी रास्ते में काल बन कर आई बस ने इनकी बाइक में पीछे से धक्का मार दिया, जिससे दोनों की मौत घटनास्थल पर हो गई।

     […] tabhī rāste mẽ kāl ban kar āī bas ne inkī bāik mẽ pīche se dhakkā mār diyā, jisse donõ kī maut ghaṭnāsthal par ho gaī.

     […] and just then a bus arrived in the form of Death and rammed their bike from behind, due to which the deaths of both occurred at the site of the accident.

4. (grammar) tense

Inherited from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀅𑀕𑀸𑀮 (agāla), from Sanskrit अकाल (akāla, “bad time”).

काल • (kāl) m (Urdu spelling کال‎)

1. famine; bad times

काल • (kāl) (Latin script ?, Kannada script ?)

1. yesterday

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /kal/

काल • (kāl)

1. yesterday

• आज (āj̈, “today”)
• उद्या (udyā, “tomorrow”)
• परवा (parvā, “the day after tomorrow”)
• तेरवा (tervā, “two days after tomorrow”)

• Berntsen, Maxine, “काल”, in A Basic Marathi-English Dictionary, New Delhi: American Institute of Indian Studies, 1982-1983.
• Molesworth, James Thomas (1857), “काल”, in A dictionary, Marathi and English, Bombay: Printed for government at the Bombay Education Society's Press
• Shridhar Ganesh Vaze (1911), “काल”, in The Aryabhusan School Dictionary, Poona: Arya-Bhushan Press

काल m

1. Devanagari script form of kāla (“time”)
   • c. 500 AD, Kaccāyana, Pālivyākaraṇaṃ [Pali Grammar]‎, page 254; republished as Satish Chandra Acharyya Vidyabhusana, editor, Kaccayana's Pali Grammar (edited in Devanagari character and translated into English), Calcutta, Bengal: Mahabodhi Society, 1901:

     काले इच्चेतं अस्हिकारत्थं वेदितब्बं॥

     Kāle iccetaṃ adhikāratthaṃ veditabbaṃ.

     Note that time when is the purpose of the section

• (Vedic) IPA^(key): /kɑː.lɐ/
• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑː.l̪ɐ/

Borrowed from Dravidian, ultimately from Proto-Dravidian *kār; compare Tamil கார் (kār, “black”), கரு (karu), Kannada ಕಾಡು (kāḍu, “blackness, black”), ಕಪ್ಪು (kappu).

काल • (kāla) stem

1. black, dark blue

काल • (kāla) stem, m

1. black, dark blue colour
2. pupil (dark part of the eye)

काल • (kāla) stem, n

1. a black kind of agarwood from Agallochum (now Aquilaria)
2. a kind of perfume (कक्कोलक (kakkolaka))
3. iron

Of uncertain origin.

Perhaps an l-form of कार (kāra, “action”), taking "decisive action" as the connotation.

Alternatively, derived from चर् (car, “turning”); compare Proto-Slavic *vermę̀ (“period of time”) for a parallel semantic development from an earlier "turn" meaning (albeit from a different root).

Hirt compares this to Gothic 𐍈𐌴𐌹𐌻𐌰 (ƕeila, “a while”), while Güntert compares this to Ancient Greek καιρός (kairós, “measure, time, season”), and takes the l-consonant in काल as a preservation of a dialectal form in order to distinguish from कार.

Probably not a vṛddhi derivative of the root कल् (kal, “to calculate or enumerate”).

काल • (kālá) stem, m

1. a fixed or right point of time, a space of time, time (in general)
2. the proper time or season for (+genitive, dative, locative, in compound, infinitive, or subjunctive with यद् (yad)
   • RV 10.42.9b

     उत परहामतिदीव्या जयाति कर्तं यच्छ्वघ्नी विचिनोतिकाले |

     यो देवकामो न धना रुणद्धि समित तं रायास्र्जति सवधावान ||

     uta prahāmatidīvyā jayāti kṛtaṃ yacchvaghnī vicinotikāle |

     yo devakāmo na dhanā ruṇaddhi samit taṃ rāyāsṛjati svadhāvān ||

     Yea, by superior play he wins advantage, when he, a gambler, piles his gains in season.

     Celestial-natured, he o’erwhelms with riches the devotee who keeps not back his treasure.

   kālaḥ prasthānasya or prasthānāya or prasthāne — time for departure

   kriyā-kāla — time for action

   nā-yaṃ kālo vilambitum — this is not the time to delay

   kālo yad bhuñjīta bhavān — it is time for you to eat

3. occasion, circumstance
4. season
5. meal-time (twice a day)

   ubhau kālau — in the morning and in the evening

   ṣaṣṭhe kāle — in the evening of the third day

   ṣaṣṭhā-nna-kāla — one who eats only at the sixth meal-time, i.e. who passes five meals without eating and has no meal till the evening of the third day; or without अन्न (anna):

   caturtha-kālam — at the fourth meal-time, i.e. at the evening of the second day

6. hour, hence:

   ṣaṣṭhe kāle 'hnaḥ — at the sixth hour of the day, i.e. at noon

7. a period of time, time of the world (= युग (yuga))
8. measure of time, prosody
9. a section, part
10. the end
11. death by age
12. time (as leading to events, the causes of which are imperceptible to the mind of man), destiny, fate
13. time (as destroying all things), death, time of death (often personified and represented with the attributes of Yama, regent of the dead, or even identified with him
    • c. 400 BCE, Bhagavad Gītā Chapter II.32:

      कालोऽस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो॥

      kāloʼsmi lokakṣayakṛtpravṛddho.

      I am mighty Time, the source of destruction.

    kālam-√i or kālaṃ-√kṛ — to die; kāla in this sense is frequently connected with अन्तक (antaka), मृत्यु (mṛtyu) e.g.

    abhy-adhāvata prajāḥ kāla ivā-ntakaḥ — he attacked the people like Time the destroyer; compare कालान्तक (kālā*ntaka)

14. 'kāla personified is also a देवर्षि (devarṣi) in Indra's court, and a son of Dhruva

• Monier Williams (1899), “काल”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, […], new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 0277.
• Mayrhofer, Manfred (1992) Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen [Etymological Dictionary of Old Indo-Aryan]‎ (in German), volume 1, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, page 343
• Mayrhofer, Manfred (1956) Kurzgefasstes Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen [A Concise Etymological Sanskrit Dictionary] (in German), volume 1, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, pages 202-203
• Agallochum at The Plant List