Word history
Monier-Williams (1899) records samartha with the sense “capable, powerful”. Samartha is a descriptive adjective for capacity or competence. The dictionary allows it to take a complement naming the task or thing for which something is fit. समर्थ is also an ordinary written word; the surname does not turn that grammatical description into a claim about a particular individual. The older form includes a final short vowel.
Literal dictionary sense
samartha: Capable, powerful.
Native-script forms
समर्थ · Devanagari
The same word as a given name
Sources and attribution
- Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899) · headword samartha, page 1156, column 3, entry L233753
Dictionary senses and word histories are selected and adapted. Adapted lexical text is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Linked Wiktionary entries provide contributor histories. Source register.