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bahujanā

bahujana

masc nom pl of bahujana (noun); masc instr sg of bahujana (noun); masc abl sg of bahujana (noun); masc voc sg of bahujana (noun); …

1. multitude; many people; mass of people

Built from

• bahu — root · many, abundant
  From PIE *bhaǵhu-; denotes fullness and proliferation. Related to Sanskrit bahu- and distantly to English big.
• jana — root · people, folk
  From PIE *ǵen- 'to beget, produce, race'; cognate with Latin genus, Greek genos, English kin, and genus. Signals the generative body of humanity.

Analysis. bahu- (many, abundant) + jana (people, folk); lit. 'many-people', a collective denoting the common masses or lay populace.

Etymology. bahu- is cognate with Sanskrit bahu-, Gothic bagms 'tree' (collective abundance), and Greek pakhys 'thick'; jana- descends from PIE *ǵen- 'to beget, produce, race' (cognate with Latin genus, Greek genos, English kin). The compound expresses the laity as the fertile, generative multitude.

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

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