ऋभु

Sanskrit

Alternative scripts

Presumedly from Proto-Indo-Aryan *Hr̥bʰúṣ, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hr̥bʰúš, but of uncertain origin:

Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos (“servant, worker; orphan”), the same source of Proto-Germanic *arbaidiz (“toil, labor, work”) and Proto-Slavic *orbota (“work”). (See अर्भ (arbha).)
Perhaps a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (“white”). Compare Proto-Germanic *albiz (“elf”) (whence English elf). This has been hypothesized to point to the original mythical sense in which elves or craftsmen gods were luminous heavenly workers,^[1] thus given the name “white one”, later interpreted in Sanskrit as “skilled one”. The connection with the Germanic mytheme of elves is further said to be supported by cognate poetic formulas, such as “chariot made by craftsmen” as an allegory of the sun; cf. Old Norse Alfrǫðull (“sun”, literally “elf-wheel”).^[2] The root *h₂elbʰ- (“white”) is otherwise absent from Indo-Iranian.
Alternatively non-Indo-European, such as from a pre-Indo-Aryan substrate language; however, this is highly improbable due to the presence of a syllabic consonant ऋ (ṛ) in the word, a characteristic of Indo-European words (but see Proto-Indo-Iranian *r̥šíš for a similar case).

ऋ॒भु • (ṛbhú) stem

ऋ॒भु • (ṛbhú) stem, m

^ Calin, Didier (2017), ““elf” (elves = heavenly smiths)”, in Dictionary of Indo-European Poetic and Religious Themes (Linguistique; 3), Les Cent Chemins, →ISBN, page 78: “PIE *álbʰo-/-u-, G. *l̥bʰéus”
^ Calin, Didier (2017), “chariot of the elves/heavenly smiths”, in Dictionary of Indo-European Poetic and Religious Themes (Linguistique; 3), Les Cent Chemins, →ISBN, page 49

Monier Williams (1899), “ऋभु”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, […], new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 226, column 2.