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dāsī

fem nom sg of dāsī (noun); fem nom pl of dāsī (noun); fem acc pl of dāsī (noun); fem voc sg of dāsī (noun); …

1. maid; maidservant; female slave

Built from

• dās — root · serve, work
  The root √dās- denotes servile labour and the binding of one to another's will. Cognate with Sanskrit dāsa- (slave) and dāsī- (maidservant); the underlying image is labour owed and obligation imposed.
• ī — ending · feminine marker
  The feminine suffix -ī marks female gender in this noun. It derives from the Sanskrit feminine -ī suffix and is a regular marker for women and female beings throughout Pali nouns.

Etymology. From √dās- (to serve), cognate with Sanskrit dāsī and dāsa (slave, servant). The root dās- is related to Latin fatigāre (to weary through service) and English toil; the concrete sense is 'one bound to work for another', from which flows the legal and social status of servitude.

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

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