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devānaminda

masc voc sg of devānaminda (noun)

1. lord of the gods; epithet of Sakka

Built from

• deva — root · god
  From PIE *deywos (shine, sky-god); cognate with Latin deus and English divine. The concrete sense is a luminous or heavenly being.
• ānaṁ — ending · of the (plural)
  Genitive plural ending -ānaṁ on the a-stem deva, marking possession: 'of the gods'.
• inda — root · Indra, king
  From Sanskrit Indra, the Vedic storm-god and king of the gods. In Pali, inda serves as an epithet for Sakka (also called Indra), the ruler of the Tāvatiṃsa heaven. The form is a reduced variant or honorific use of the divine name.

Analysis. devānaṁ (genitive plural of deva, 'god') + inda (from Indra, king of the gods); 'lord of the gods', a title compound in apposition addressing the chief deity.

Etymology. deva ('god') is cognate with Latin deus and English divine; Sanskrit Indra, the Vedic king of the gods, appears in Pali as inda. The compound translates the honorific status of Indra/Sakka in the pantheon.

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

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