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atthaṅgamoti

atthaṅgama

3rd singular present indicative of atthaṅgamati

1. disappearance; vanishing; settling down; subsiding; passing away (of); lit. going home
2. (of the sun) setting; going down

Built from

• atta — root · own
  Reflexive possessive pronoun, from PIE *s(u)e-to- meaning 'one's own self'; appears in attā (self, soul) and attan (oneself).
• ṅgama — root · going
  From √gam 'to go', cognate with English 'come' and Sanskrit gacchati. The nasal consonant represents the gerundive suffix -a added to the root.
• ti — ending · it is / (quotative marker)
  Quotative particle that frames the preceding word as a named concept or reported fact; here it nominifies the verbal noun or marks direct discourse.

Analysis. atthaṅgama + iti: the iti suffix marks quoted speech or conceptual reification; atthaṅgama itself is atta + ṅgama, a compound meaning 'going home' or 'going to one's own place', hence 'disappearance' or 'setting'. The word appears in canonical formulas for the sun's setting and the cessation of experience.

Etymology. atta is the reflexive pronoun 'one's own' (from Indic *atta- < PIE *s(u)e-to- 'own'); ṅgama is from √gam 'go' (English 'come', Sanskrit gacchati, Latin venio). The compound atthaṅgama is a poetic or literal translation of the notion of returning to one's source or place of origin — the sun 'goes to its own place' when it sets.

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

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