dāni

da

nt nom pl of da (adj); nt acc pl of da (adj); nt voc pl of da (adj)

da (adj): giving; offering; bestowing
dāni (ind): now; immediately

Built from

dā — root · to give
Sanskrit dāti, Latin dāre, Greek doron; originally 'to place in someone's hands'. The sense of presenting or offering defines the root's spatial and social imagery.
a — ending · adjective marker
Nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural ending, reinterpreted as a temporal adverbial marker when the phrase 'at the giving (moment)' froze into a single adverb.

Analysis. dāni is the neuter nominative plural of da (adj 'giving') reanalyzed as an adverb of time: 'at the [present] moment', i.e. now. The shift from adjective to temporal adverb parallels the evolution of 'present' (Latin praesens, originally 'being before/at hand') to mean 'current time'.

Etymology. From √dā 'to give' (Sanskrit dāti, Latin dāre, English donation) + -a (adjective-forming suffix). The neuter plural form became frozen as an indeclinable temporal adverb, semantically similar to how Sanskrit idānīm 'now' evolved from ida 'this' + ānīm (locative/temporal marker). The concrete sense 'the giving [moment]' = 'this moment here' > 'now'.

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

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