Old-Indo-Aryan ádbhuta- ‘mysterious, miraculous, wonderful, marvelous’ is a common adjective since the Rgveda. The word is, undoubtedly, derived from a negated verbal adjective of the root dabh ‘to deceive’, as already shown by K. Hoffmann. Another verbal adjective form is found in á-dabdha- ‘not (to be) deceived’. The Proto-Indo-Iranian form is supposed to have been *(á)dbdha- (<*-dh-bh-ta- through Bartholomae's rule) on the basis of Young Avestan abda- ‘wonderful’. OIA. á-dabdha- and JAv. dapta- ‘deceived’ are innovated by introducing the full grade root form. In the case of ádbhuta-, the root consonants as well as the formant -ta- are reserved by -u-, which is gained through the re-interpretation of the pres. *dbh-náu-/dbh-nu- as a -n-in-fix-present *dbh-ná-u-/dbh-n-u-. The original meaning is held by á-dabdha-and dapta-, which seem to be younger forms, while somewhat older ádbhuta- and abda- are charged with the derived meaning. Also the adverb OIA. addhá and OAV. OPers. azda ‘obviously, clearly’ are examined, considering the problem of simplifying the three plosives group. They go back most probably to *ad ‘this’+ -dhá, in spite of the common opinion today. (Detailed discussions are to be published in German in Fs. Klingenschmitt.)
