Hindi-Urdu: slow (adjective) / dheera?

[amiramir]

This is a question that you couldn't even call H-U 101; it's so basic.

Slowly as an adjective [EDIT: adverb!] is quite clear: dheere se /dheere-dheere. But I have never heard of the uninflected adjective whence those adverbs must have come: dheeraa. Is it used, and I just haven't come across it?

GaaDii tezii se chal rahii hai--> Tez gaaDii hai.

GaaDii dheere se chal rahii hai--> [dheerii?] gaaDii hai? I wouldn't even know what alternative word we could use. I guess neither dheemii nor mand. I'm drawing a blank.

Thank you!

 

[littlepond]

I would have said that "dheere se" and "dheere-dheere" are adverbs (as is "slowly") - maybe you meant "adverb" in your post? The commonly used adjective is "dheemaa, dheemii, dheeme" - hence, a "dheemii gaaRii." For example, "yaar, terii gaaRii baRii dheemii hai, bilkul bail-gaaRii hai! ham merii gaaRii se chaleNge, Theek hai?"

"mand" is another adjective, though one would idiomatically say "mand gatii" (low speed), rather than "mand gaaRii."

 

[amiramir]

Thank you very much. Yes, of course, I meant slowly as an adverb. Thanks again. It would be interesting to see if dheeraa ever existed. Dheere say can't have come out of no where.

 

[Qureshpor]

A very good question. "dhiiraa" does exist as an adjective albeit its usage appears to be quiet rare, to say the least. (This word immediately brings to my mind a truly heavanly song, sung by Lata mangeshkar, with the opening line..."dhiire dhiire machal, ai dil-i-be-qaraar ko'ii aataa hai". It is doubly heavanly because a wife is singing it for her husband! The poet is Kaifi Azami.)

I'll just quote, a couple of entries from Urdu LuGhat.

"dhiiraa so gambiir"

Here "gambhiir" means "deep" as opposed to the usual meaning of "serious".

The implication being, "jo paanii aahistah chaltaa hai vuh gahraa hotaa hai".

So, "dhiiraa" here has the adjectival meaning "slow/slow-paced".

"dhiiraa kaam raHmaanii, shitaab kaam shaitaanii"

A slow-paced task is Godly (while) a quick-paced task is Devilish.

In addition to "madham" for "slow", one can of course use "aahistah" as an adjective too. Also "sust/sust-raftaar".