tañce

sandhi contraction (taṃ + ce)

if that; if him

Built from

taṃ — root · that
Demonstrative pronoun, accusative singular; cognate with Sanskrit tám and English 'that' (both from Indo-European *to-, the root of all definite demonstratives).
ce — prefix · if
Conditional particle, originally enclitic; related to Sanskrit cet and Greek ei (if). Marks the protasis of a conditional clause.

Analysis. taṃ (accusative singular of ta, 'that') + ce (conditional particle 'if'), contracted by assimilation: final -m of taṃ becomes -ñ before c-, and the two words fuse into one. Common in narrative: 'if that [should happen]' or 'if him [one should meet]'.

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

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