‹ Back to the text

samaye

samaya

masc acc pl of samaya (noun); masc loc sg of samaya (noun); reflx pr 1st sg of samayati (verb); reflx imp 1st sg of samayati (verb); …

1. samaya (masc): time; occasion; lit. going together
2. samaya (masc): right time; suitable occasion; lit. going together
3. samaya (masc): condition; state; lit. going together
4. samaya (masc): gathering; massing; congregation; assembly; lit. going together
5. samaya (masc): religion; doctrine; lit. going together
6. samaya (masc): learning; study; art; science
7. samayati (pr): calms down; settles; stills; makes subside; gives peace; lit. causes to be calm

Built from

• sam — prefix · together
  Things brought into one; the concrete imagery of gathering or convergence into unity. Works like Latin con- and English same.
• i — root · go
  From PIE *ei- 'to go'; cognate with English 'go', Latin ire. The sense 'going together' at a particular time and place is the root of samaya's temporal and collective force.
• a — ending · masculine nominative
  Regular masculine -a ending in Pali nominals, marking the citation form of this noun.

Analysis. sam + aya: 'going together' (sam- 'together' + √i 'go'), hence a gathering or convergence of time and circumstance; when semantically abstract, the collective moment or condition in which things stand together.

Etymology. sam (together) + √i (go, from PIE *ei- 'go'; cognate with English 'go', Latin ire). The spatial root 'going together' extends to 'gathering', 'occasion', and 'doctrine' (the collected teachings standing together). In samayati (verb), the sense 'calms, settles' derives from the noun's force of convergence—things coming together into stillness.

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

Lite mode — plain HTML for e-readers and old browsers. Full version