पद्

• (Vedic) IPA^(key): /pɐ́d/
• (Classical Sanskrit) IPA^(key): /pɐd̪/

From Proto-Indo-Iranian *pā́ts (“foot”), from Proto-Indo-European *pṓds (“foot”).^[1] Cognate with Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬛 (pad), Hittite 𒉺𒋫 (pa-ta), Ancient Greek πούς (poús), Latin pēs, Persian پا (pâ), Old Armenian ոտն (otn), German Fuß, Old English fōt (whence English foot).

पद् • (pád) stem, m

1. a foot
2. step
   • c. 1700 BCE – 1200 BCE, Ṛgveda 1.154.5:

     तद॑स्य प्रि॒यम॒भि पाथो॑ अश्यां॒ नरो॒ यत्र॑ देव॒यवो॒ मद॑न्ति।
     उ॒रु॒क्र॒मस्य॒ स हि बन्धु॑रि॒त्था विष्णो॑: प॒दे प॑र॒मे मध्व॒ उत्स॑:॥

     tádasya priyámabhí pā́tho aśyāṃ náro yátra devayávo mádanti.
     urukramásya sá hí bándhuritthā́ víṣṇo: padé paramé mádhva útsa:.

     Might I reach that dear cattle-pen of his, where men seeking the gods find elation, for exactly that is the bond to the wide-striding one: the wellspring of mead in the highest step of Viṣṇu.

3. fourth part, quarter

• Magadhi Prakrit:
  • Bengali: পা (pa)
  • Early Assamese: পাৱ (pawo)
    • Assamese: পা (pa), পাও (paü)
  • Sylheti: ꠙꠣꠅ (fao)
• Dardic:
  • Kashmiri: پۆد (pod, “foot, position”)
• Hindi: पांव (pāmv)
• Marathi: पाय (pāy)
• Pali: pada, pāda
• Urdu: پاؤں (pā̃v)
• → Tamil: பாதம் (pātam)
• → Telugu: పదము (padamu)

From Proto-Indo-Aryan *pád-, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *pád (“to move, go”), from the same ultimate origin as Etymology 1,^[2] perhaps with semantic influence from the root underlying पत् (pat, “to fall”).^[3]

पद् • (pad)

1. to fall, fall down or out, perish
2. to go, resort or apply to, participate in, keep, observe

• Monier Williams (1899) “पद्”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, […], new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, pages 582/3, 583/1.
• William Dwight Whitney, 1885, The Roots, Verb-forms, and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language, Leipzig: Breitkopf and Härtel, page 94