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sāvake

sāvaka

masc acc pl of sāvaka (noun); masc loc sg of sāvaka (noun)

1. disciple; pupil; follower; lit. hearer

Built from

• sā — root · hear
  From Indo-European *sreu-; related to English 'shrill' (resonant sound) and Latin 'servare' (to keep, observe—one who keeps what is heard). The root √śru (Sanskrit śṛṇoti) gives sāvaka its sense of one who attends to sound, hence teaching.
• vaka — ending · -er, agent
  The -ka suffix forms agent nouns (one who does X), here 'one who hears'. In the accusative plural sāvake, the ending -e marks both case and number.

Etymology. From √śru (Sanskrit śṛṇoti 'hears'), the root of sāvaka itself; the -ka suffix forms agent nouns. The literal sense 'hearer' preserves the concrete act of listening to the Buddha's teaching, which became the defining mark of discipleship in the canon.

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

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