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purimo

purima

masc nom sg of purima (adj); masc nom sg of purima (noun)

1. earlier; past; former; previous
2. eastern; lit. previous
3. front; fore; lit. previous
4. first person; man in front; lit. previous

Built from

• pur- — root · forward, before
  Spatial root denoting 'ahead in space or time'. The concrete image of what stands in front became the abstract sense of 'former' and 'eastern' (the direction of sunrise, ahead in the day).
• -ima — ending · superlative or ordinal
  Suffix forming ordinal and superlative adjectives. Here it marks purima as the superlative-ordinal of the root: 'foremost, first', hence 'earlier' and 'front'.

Etymology. From Sanskrit pūrva- (eastern, former, previous), cognate with Latin prior (former) and English prior, fore. The root sense is 'forward in space or time' — what stands ahead or comes before. Related to proto-Indo-European *per- (forward, through).

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

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