A katar is a katar till......

[Mercenary]

Originally Posted by Nihl

This given the whole thing that the "pattani" of pattani jamdadu - a long straight katar - comes from the (old?) root word "patta", a word used to describe a long, straight blade of grass (I believe Elgood notes this in Hindu Arms&Ritual). I think one of us really just needs to learn Hindi and then we can come up with our own specialized terms for these katars

The pata-sword and patta-leaf have different spelling and pronunciation in Hindi, but the same spelling in Persian transcription for Urdu. In any way they are different words with different meanings.