Hindi

Adverb

इव • ‎(iva), Urdu spelling: او

1. thus
2. as
3. almost

Preposition

इव • ‎(iva) ‎(Urdu spelling او)

1. as
2. like

Sanskrit

Adverb

इव • ‎(iva)

1. like, in the same manner as (in this sense = यथा ‎(yathā), and used correlatively to तथा ‎(tathā))
2. as it were, as if

   patheva — as if on a path

3. in a certain manner, in some measure, a little, perhaps (in qualification or mitigation of a strong assertion)
4. nearly, almost, about

   muhūrtam iva — almost an hour

5. so, just so, just, exactly, indeed, very (especially after words which involve some restriction:)

   īṣad iva — just a little

   kiṃcid iva — just a little bit; and after a negation e.g.

   na cirād iva — very soon

6. (as a particle) connected vaguely , and somewhat pleonastically, with an interrogative pronoun or adverb, e.g.

   kim iva — what?

   katham iva — how could that possibly be?

   kveva — where, I should like to know?

Usage notes

In the pada texts of the Rigveda, Yajurveda, and Atharvaveda, and by native grammarians, iva is considered to be enclitic, and therefore compounded with the word after which it stands.

References

• Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1898) A Sanskrit-English dictionary etymologically and philologically arranged with special reference to cognate Indo-European languages, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 0168