Pati (Hindustani: पति, پتی) is a title meaning "master" or "lord" in various Indo-Iranian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindustani, Old Persian language and Avestan. The feminine equivalent in Indo-Aryan languages is patni (literally, "mistress" or "lady"). The term pati is frequently used as a suffix, e.g. lakhpati (meaning, master of a lakh rupees). In modern-day Hindustani and other Indian, Nepalese and Bangladeshi languages, pati and patni have taken on the meanings of husband and wife respectively when used as standalone words.
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Pati is also a surname of the Oriya Brahmin community. A person of the state of Odisha, India with the surname Pati is likely to be a Brahmin, and similarly for the names Padhi, Senapati, Pani, Panigrahi, among others.
Modern usage
Etymology and cognates
The term pati is believed to originate from the Proto-Indo-European language. Older Persian languages, such as Avestan, use the term pati or paiti as a title extensively, e.g. dmana-paiti (master of the house, similar to Sanskrit dam-pati). In several Indo-European languages, cognate terms exist in varying forms (often as a suffix), for instance in the English word "despot" from the Greek δεσ-πότης, meaning "master, despot, lord, owner." In Latin, the term changed meaning from master to able, and is "an example of a substantive coming to be used as an adjective," resulting in English words such as potent, potential and potentate. In Lithuanian, pats as a standalone word came to mean husband, himself (patis in Old Lithuanian), as did pati in Hindustani.