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dhammañca

dhamma

masculine nominative + clitic conjunction

1. nature; character
2. quality; characteristic; trait; inherent quality
3. teaching; discourse; doctrine
4. mental phenomena; thoughts
5. mental states
6. matter; thing; phenomenon
7. truth; reality; principle; truth behind the teaching
8. virtue; moral behaviour
9. …

Built from

• dhamm- — root · holding, upholding
  From √dhṛ 'to hold, support'; the concrete image of something that props up or sustains (a building, the social order, moral law) became the abstract sense of law, duty, doctrine, and ultimately the transcendent truths.
• -a — ending · nominative masculine singular
  Marks the word as subject or topic; here nominative in a coordinate clause.
• ca — prefix · and
  Enclitic conjunction; adds the word or clause to what follows, often linking related ideas or listing items in sequence.

Analysis. dhammaṃ + ca: 'teaching and', linking dharma to what follows or precedes in the discourse; the nominative + conjunction form emphasizes the topic or adds coordinate clauses.

Etymology. From Sanskrit dharma (धर्म), from √dhṛ 'to hold, support, maintain' (Sanskrit dhārayati 'he holds'). The root appears in English durable, Latin firmus 'firm'. The sense evolved from 'what supports or upholds' (a structure, practice, law) to 'law, order, duty, teaching' — in Buddhism, the fundamental laws of nature and the Buddha's doctrine that reveals them. The prefix form in Pali matches Sanskrit dharma without prefix.

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

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