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ahañhi

aha

1st person singular nominative pronoun + emphatic particle, sandhi form

1. aha (nt): day
2. aha (masc): day
3. ahañhi (sandhi): I truly; I certainly
4. ahaṃ (pron): I

Built from

• ahaṃ — root · I (1st person singular)
  From PIE *eg-. The concrete sense of 'self' as the speaker present here and now underlies all first-person reference. Cognates: Latin ego, Greek egō, English I, German ich.
• hi — ending · emphatic particle, truly
  An old conjunction and emphatic marker, related to Sanskrit hi. In Pali it commonly reinforces pronouns and verbs, adding emphasis or causal force ('indeed, because, truly').

Analysis. ahaṃ (nominative singular pronoun, 'I') + hi (emphatic/causal particle, 'truly, certainly, indeed'). The final ṃ of ahaṃ elides before the h of hi, producing ahañhi in sandhi.

Etymology. ahaṃ descends from PIE *eg- (I, me); cognates include Latin ego, Greek egō (ἐγώ), English I, German ich. The particle hi is an old conjunction meaning 'because, truly, for', related to Sanskrit hi and Greek chi (χι, emphatic marker).

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

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