Aasiriyar:
The word Aasiriyar means teacher or guru in Tamil. This word came from portmanteau of two words Aasu + Arithal. Aasu means mistake (kutram) and Arithal means opting it out, or filtering it out (kalaithal0). Thus teacher as per this nomenclatue is the one who corrects your mistake, clears your doubt, and so on. It is from this word the word 'Aacharya' in Sanskrit was born. However Sanskrit pudits have a different meaning for "Aacharya". They differentiate Aacharya from Guru. While Guru is only a teacher who clarifies your doubt, Aacharya teaches and lives upto his teaching. In other words the man who walks the talk is Aacharya and Guru will only teach (he may or may not walk his talk).This is how Sanskrit pandits changed the meaning of adopted word from its etymological underlying word. Many such modifications created confusion in the core understanding of the essence offered in our puranas.
Aasu = Mistake or Defect
Arithal = is to know, finding out
Aasu + Patri + Arithal = Hospital (Aasuparti)
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There are two words in Tamil for the word 'black' viz. Karuppu and Nallam (the word 'nallam' is relatively older). Nallam is used mostly as a prefix these days and not as a standalone word in Tamil, for instance the word 'nalla-pambu' is used for a black colored snake (originally used to refer to king cobra, but these days any cobra is called nalla pambu in Tamil), and the word 'nalla-ennai' for Gingili Oil (Til Oil), as the oil is extracted from a black colored Gingili seeds. (note there is a mountain range in AP, called Nalla Mallai Forest, Nalla is black and Malai in Tamil is mountain)
In the modern times the word 'Karuppu' is mostly used to refer to black color. It is from this word, the word 'kari' was coined. Kari in Tamil stands for an 'elephant' as well as for 'charcoal' for both being black in color. There is another word derivative words called 'Kari' for mountains in Tamil (being black in color), it is from this word the word 'Giri' came into usage in 'Sanskrit'
The sanctum sanctorum of the temple is called 'Karuvarai in Tamil(which is actually Karu + Arrai'; as already explained Karu is Black and the word 'Arai' in Tamil means a room) this word got deformed to 'Garba graha' in Sanskrit. As per 'aagama sashtra' the sanctum sanctorum (garba- graha) should be constructed without any window and with only one door to 'go-in' and 'come-out', this make the room very dark and thus the word 'karuvarai' is rightly used in Tamil.
Tamil Aasivaga Siddhas who were the first in the world to develop God Consciousness and were nature worshipers. They keenly looked into every aspect of nature and metaphorically depicted the same in the temples. In South India, it is very common to paint the Temple walls with Red and White stripes, Red represents an ovum (for ovum being red in color) and White represents the color of sperm. When the Red and White are one after the other they fused to form the parabrahmam inside the 'karuvarai' or 'garbagruha'.
The word 'kretam' for rock also came from the word 'kari' (for black in Tamil). The expression 'kritha yugam' came from the word 'kretam' only. This is the time frame man used to live on mountain caves. We can call 'kreta yugam' as 'stone age'.
The evolutionary biologists have suggested man from the mountain started coming down and started living on flat surface only after he has invented 'weapons'. It was around the same time 'man' has invented smelting using natural metal ores.
The word 'ooruku' in Tamil stands for 'melting' and the word 'maatram' stands to mean 'change' in Tamil. Thus the word 'oru-maatram' originally stood to means 'smelting', in Tamil, however these days the same word is being used for any change in shapes (the reason is ... the word 'ooruvam' means 'image' and maatram means change, thus ooruvam+matram is also orumatram is also used). It is interesting to note that in English too the word 'smelting' came from the fusion of two words 'separation and melting' , in other words " separation by melting" is called 'smelting' in English. The process of melting metal ores is called 'ooruku viththay' this word finally became 'rig veda'
ooruku viththay - rokh viththay - ruk veda - Rig Veda.
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Vesti:
In English we use the phrase "wash and wear" for those cloth which does not require ironing or pressing. We also call it as "ready to wear" to mean the same. All the dress that we wear are stitched but vesthi is not stitched, it is just a piece of cloth rapped around. Consequently to wear something that was not stitched, it was called "Vetti uduthu" just cut (from the bale of cloth) and wear. This Vetti uduthal has become Vetti in short. When a Tamil word gets Sanskritized it adds the sound "sh" for eg:
Abidegam of Tamil becomes Abishegam when Sanskritised Tamil. Amaial of Tamil becomes Samayal, Angu becomes Sangu much in the same way. Similarly Vetti becomes Veshti (a Sanskritized Tamil)
The other Tamil words like tuṇḍu (துண்டு) 'a towel ' stem from the root sense of 'a piece, cut piece'. The generic term for a 'cloth' is tuṇi (துணி) and it literally means 'to cut' (tuṇittalis a verbal noun meaning cutting, action of cutting). The verb is tuṇi (துணி) 'to cut. Another word for a piece of cloth used for bundling gold coins or valuables is called kiḻi(கிழி) which means 'to tear' (here a noun is created from the verb 'to tear' - kiḻi (கிழி)- a common word is poṟkiḻi - 'a bag of gold'). The ancient (2000-2500 year old) Sangam word for a cloth is aṟuvai (அறுவை) which comes from the verb 'to tear or to cut'.
People who would make clothes are called aṟuvaiyar (அறுவையர்). For example in a 2000-2200 year old anthology called puṟanāṉūṟu (song 279 : 8, 291 : 2) , it is said tū veḷḷaṟuvai - mika veṇmai-yāṉa āṭai (தூவெள் அறுவை - மிக வெண்மையான ஆடை; புறநா. 279 : 8, 291 : 2.) - (meaning ''pure white cloth - very white dress'' -- tū = pure, veḷḷ = white, aṟuvai =cloth, mika = very, veṇmai-yāṉa = white (adjective),āṭai =dress). There are many instances of the usage of the usage of the word aṟuvaimeaning cloth and aṟuvaiyar meaning cloth-maker.
One can see that all the root sense of all the words for 'cloth' cited here is 'to cut, a cut piece, to tear'. The word veshti is a sankritizing of vēṭṭi (வேட்டி). A similar one is मुष्टि(mushti) from mutti (முட்டி) (a clenched fist; while Tamil word would have the same meaning, it is a a more general word for knuckles and joints as well).
Reference:
A comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Tamil Language, (the 12-volume work). See the etymologies of the words vēṭṭi (வேட்டி), tuṇḍu (துண்டு), tuṇi (துணி),kiḻi (கிழி) , aṟuvai (அறுவை).
http://www.tamilvu.org/slet/l1280/l1280spg.jsp?no=286&file=l12806bb.htm
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