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ahosiṁ

bhavati

1st person singular past tense (aorist)

1. I was
2. I became
3. I came to be

Built from

• ahu- — stem · was, became
  Aorist stem of bhavati, with reduplication and lengthening of the root vowel typical of Pali aorist formation.
• -ṁ — ending · 1st person singular
  Pronominal ending marking the subject as the speaker alone; -ṁ assimilates before other sounds.

Analysis. ahosiṁ is a contracted aorist form of bhavati (to be, to become). The base ahosi (he/she was) takes the 1st person singular ending -ṁ.

Etymology. From √bhū (to be, to become), cognate with English be, Sanskrit bhavati, Greek phuein (to grow), Latin fui (I was). The aorist stem ahu- is an old reduplicated form (*bhu-bhū-); the h derives from the aspirated guttural in the root. The -ṁ is the 1st person singular pronominal ending.

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

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