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bahujanassa

bahujana

masc dat sg of bahujana (noun); masc gen sg of bahujana (noun)

1. multitude; many people; mass of people

Built from

• bahu — root · many, much
  From PIE *bhew- 'to be, grow'; relates to English be and Sanskrit bhavati 'becomes'. Expresses abundance and plurality.
• jana — root · people, person
  From PIE *ǵen- 'to be born, beget'; cognate with English kin, Latin genus. Denotes born beings, kinfolk, or people as a collective.
• -ssa — ending · genitive/dative singular
  The -ssa ending marks either possessive/ablative origin (genitive) or indirect object/benefactive (dative) in masculine nouns. Here it anchors the compound noun to its syntactic function in the sentence.

Analysis. bahu (many) + jana (people); the collective sense 'the many' or 'the multitude' is inherent in the compound.

Etymology. bahu is from PIE *bhew- 'to be, grow, become' (cognate with English be, Latin futurus); jana from PIE *ǵen- 'to be born, beget' (cognate with English kin, Latin genus 'kind, race', Sanskrit janā 'woman, people'). The compound denotes the common masses or populace.

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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