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balavagāvo

balavago

masc nom pl of balavago (noun); masc acc pl of balavago (noun); masc voc pl of balavago (noun)

1. strong cow; powerful cow

Built from

• bala — root · strength
  From √bal, meaning power or might; the concrete image is physical force or firmness.
• vago — stem · cow
  Feminine noun; cognate with Latin vacca and Sanskrit go-, all from Proto-Indo-European *gʷou-.
• -o — ending · nominative/accusative/vocative plural masculine
  The -o ending marks the plural in masculine a-stem nouns; here conflating three cases in the plural.

Analysis. balavago is a bahuvrihi (possessive) compound: bala (strength) + vago (cow), 'having strength [as a] cow' or 'cow [with] strength'. The nominative plural balavagāvo shows the -o ending characteristic of masculine a-stem plurals in Pali.

Etymology. bala derives from the root √bal 'to be strong'; vago (cow) is cognate with Latin vacca and Sanskrit go-, both from Proto-Indo-European *gʷou- (cow). The bahuvrihi construction is typical of Pali for descriptive compounds emphasizing the quality of the possessed object.

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

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