What is "tadbhava"

is the Sanskrit word for one of three etymological classes defined by native grammarians of Middle Indo-Aryan languages. A "tadbhava" is a word with an Indo-Aryan origin and related to Sanskrit but which had been changed to fit the phonology of the Prakrit or Apabhraṃśa in question. Tadbhavas were distinguished from tatsamas, a term applied to borrowed words which retained their Sanskrit form, and deśi ("native"), a term applied to words that were not borrowings. In the modern context, the terms tadbhava and tatsama are applied to Sanskrit loanwords not only in Indo-Aryan languages, but also in Dravidian, Munda and other South Asian languages.