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ekamekissā

ekameka

fem instr sg of ekameka (adj); fem dat sg of ekameka (adj); fem abl sg of ekameka (adj); fem gen sg of ekameka (adj)

1. each and every; every individual; lit. one one

Built from

• eka — root · one
  From PIE *oino-, the ancestor of English one, Latin unus, and Sanskrit eka. Carries the cardinal sense of unity.
• meka — root · one, each
  Variant of eka used in distributive pairs; the reduplication-like pattern (one-one) signals repetition across a set, yielding "each" and "every".
• issā — ending · instrumental/dative/ablative/genitive feminine singular
  The feminine -ī stem (ekamikā) takes -ssā in these oblique cases. The suffix marks the instrumental (by each one), dative (to each), ablative (from each), and genitive (of each) simultaneously in this form.

Analysis. eka (one) + meka (one, each), a distributive compound meaning each one individually; the repetition-with-variation pattern (one-one) conveys the sense of distribution across all members

Etymology. eka < PIE *oino- (one), cognate with English one, Latin unus, Greek oinos (wine, originally "one [drink]"), Sanskrit eka. meka is a variant of eka used in distributive compounds to avoid simple repetition; the same root in different guise. The compound ekameka parallels the English pattern "one by one" and Latin singuli (from singulus, originally one-at-a-time).

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

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