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My guess would be it is a mispronouniciation of abhilAS, the voiced aspirated series of consonants being difficult for Europeans/Americans to pronounce. The prefix abhi- is old with Indoeuropean cognates, and has a meaning of towards, whereas laS means to desire. abhi in this context intensifies the meaning, and abhilASa is therefore a desire. The ending unstressed schwa -a is dropped in many Indian languages today.