gāmassa

gāma

masc dat sg of gāma (noun); masc gen sg of gāma (noun); masc dat sg of gāma (adj); nt dat sg of gāma (adj); …

village; hamlet; lit. collection
group; class; type; family; lit. collection
vulgar; common; crude; lit. related to village

Built from

gāma — root · village, gathering
From √gam 'to go, move together'; the -ā lengthening (gam > gāma) suggests an abstract or collective noun. The image is of a place where people move toward and congregate.

Etymology. From √gam (go, move); the concrete sense of 'going together' or 'a gathering place' became 'village'—originally a settlement where people congregate. Cognate with Latin genu (race, tribe; originally 'those who go together'), and distantly with English kin via the shared sense of 'gathering of related beings'.

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

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