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ekekasmiṁ

eka

pronoun/adjective, locative singular masculine of eka (one)

1. one
2. a certain
3. each

Built from

• eka — root · one
  The number one and its sense of singularity, unity, and individuation. Cognate with Latin unus, English one.
• ka — ending · masculine nominative
  The nominative singular masculine ending; when the word is declined (here to locative -smiṁ), this root form is inflected.
• smiṁ — ending · locative singular
  Locative case ending marking the place or circumstance in which an action occurs; -smiṁ is the Pali locative singular for masculine a-stem nouns.

Analysis. ekekasmiṁ is the locative form of ekeka, a distributive formation (eka + eka, 'one by one, each individually') used with singular nouns to mean 'in one [place], in a certain [place]'. Here it appears in the construction ekekasmiṁ gāme 'in a certain village' or 'village by village'.

Etymology. eka derives from Indo-European *oikos (one, alone); cognates include Latin unus, English one, German ein. The reduplication eka-eka creates a distributive sense, 'one after another'.

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

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