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samāgamma

gerund (ind.)

1. gathering; assembling

Built from

• saṁ — prefix · together, with
  Brings things into one; like Latin con-. Works as an intensifier of unity and completeness.
• ā — prefix · toward, to completion
  Reverses motion verbs, pointing toward the speaker. Here it draws the action to a full realization.
• gam — root · go, come
  Sanskrit gacchati, English come, Latin venio (through PIE *gwem-). The root captures motion and arrival.
• mma — ending · gerund
  Nominalizes the verb phrase, turning the action into an abstract noun (gathering, the act of assembling).

Analysis. saṁ + ā + √gam: 'coming together' — the prefix sam- (together, with) combines with the reversal prefix ā- (toward the speaker, to completion) and the root √gam (go, come) to express the action of meeting or assembling in one place.

Etymology. √gam 'go, come' (Sanskrit gacchati, Latin venio 'come', English come) is ancient. The reversal ā- makes gacchati into āgacchati 'comes toward'; sam- draws multiple agents together. The gerund form -mma expresses the action as a noun.

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

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