What is the meaning and usage of the abbreviation "v. a."?
At the time of this writing there is no explanation on wiktionary, and searching the web does not yield an answer, only more instances of its use:
A random entry at the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language:
To KELE, v. a. To kill.
Random entry at latinlexicon.org:
verbero, āvi, ātum, 1 [...], v. a. verber, to lash, scourge, whip ...
Examples section in Speijer's Sanskrit Syntax, 1886:
Examples: Panc. 2 द्वादशभिर्वर्षौर्व्याकरणं श्रूयते (v. a. grammar requires twelve years to be mastered), ...
My intuition is that this is an outdated Latin abbreviation similar to "e.g." and "i.e.". (Perhaps something like verbis aliis?)
Edit: More examples from the same book (Speijer, Sanskrit Syntax, 1886), pages 2, 32, and 43:
शान्तं पापम् (v. a. malum absit)
उषिताः स्मो ह वसतिम् (v. a. we have passed the night)
कस्तेन सह तव स्नेह (v. a. how are you his friend?)
The English gloss is more or less a translation of the Sanskrit. The only thing distinguishing these translations from others (without "v. a.") is that they are a tad less literal.
I am convinced that this is not a problem of Sanskrit or grammar but of academic language of the late 19th century. The text is riddled with Latin abbreviations that would have been instantly apparent to the contemporary scholar.
Answer
Two different abbreviations were conflated in the original question: One meaning verb active in the dictionary examples, and one possibly meaning verbis aliis, "in other words", in the Sanskrit example.
The first meaning, verb active or verbum activum, was given almost instantly by Barrie England, and then expanded upon in the answers by Andrew Leach and tchrist. Please direct your upvotes to their answers.
This is by all accounts the established meaning of "v. a.".
However, there seems to be a second meaning, verbis aliis "in other words", which is not certain, but I will make a hopefully convincing argument for it below.
By searching through other works by the same author, J. S. Speijer, I have found identical usage of "v. a." in Dutch and German publications, thus supporting a Latin origin of the abbreviation (my translations added):
Speijer, Blijspelen van Plautus, 1887, page 55:
sese omnes amant "zij houden slechts van zich zelf" v. a. zij zijn egoïsten [they all love themselves "they love only themselves" v. a. they are egotists]
vide sis "zie toch eens goed" v. a. "weet gij wel wat gij zegt?" [look, if you will "have a good look now" v. a. "do you know what you're saying?"]
Speyer, Vedische und Sanskrit-Syntax, 1896, page 23:
Häufig bei tiṣṭhate v. a. "jemand anerkennen als" [Often with stands v. a. "to acknowledge somebody as"]
Note that in the last example the verb form is medio-passive, not active.
My best guess is to translate verbis aliis (or aliis verbis), the idiomatic Latin for "in other words". To anyone with a knowledge of basic Latin this will arguably be the most immediately apparent expansion. In support of this interpretation, I have found one exactly parallel use of the Dutch equivalent "m. a. w.", met anderen woorden ("in other words"), in the first book cited:
bene sit tibi! zooveel als "God zegene u!" m. a. w. "De hemel beware u daarvoor!" [may you be well! meaning as much as "God bless you!" in other words "May heaven protect you from this!"]
What's more, Speijer abbreviates the conventional et alii, "and others", as "e. a." making it possible to assume aliis being abbreviated "a." instead of the more conventional "al.".
Finally, somebody on Reddit's /r/latin independently had the same intuition as I had.
(Another suggestion vices agens was made by tchrist, drawing from Roman law vocabulary. I can not find evidence for it having generalized meaning and usage nor would this expansion be apparent to readers without a background in Roman law.)
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