The etymology of Romani ća(j)lo ‘satisfied, satiatedʼ

Out of the three verbal etymologies for this word that have been proposed, the first one (OInd. ćar- ‘grazeʼ) is utterly implausible morphologically, the second one (chad- ‘seem [good], pleaseʼ) cannot be correct for phonological reasons, and the third one (cak- ‘be satiatedʼ) is only partially acceptable. We attempt to show that in this Romani adjective (as well as in the closely related verb ća(j)ľol ‘get satiatedʼ and ‘likeʼ), as is often the case in Romani, two different roots may have merged: cak- ‘be satiatedʼ and *cāh- ‘wantʼ. The latter, unattested in Old Indic, yielded verbs with meanings such as ‘want, love; it is necessaryʼ in most New Indian languages and has been neglected in Romani etymology, which appears to be an inexplicable oversight.