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gacchāmāti

gacchati

1st person plural present indicative (with iti quotation marker)

1. goes; walks; moves; wanders around; travels
2. becomes; lit. goes

Built from

• gacch — root · go, walk, move
  From Indo-European *gwem- "to go, come"; the root appears as gam- in Sanskrit, giving gacchati via palatalization. Found in English "come" and Latin "venio" (from *gwem-), though Pali's cognates are clearest with Sanskrit and Greek βαίνω.
• ā — ending · 1st person plural present
  The stem-formant ā + -ma gives the 1st plural: "we". This ending marks present indicative in the first person plural.
• iti — ending · quotation particle
  The particle iti closes reported speech or marks a statement as a formula being cited or invoked; it signals "thus" or "saying."

Analysis. gacchāma (1st plural present stem of gacchati) + iti (quotation particle "thus, saying") — "we go" (quoted or reported). The iti marks the preceding word as direct speech or a formula being cited.

Etymology. √gam (Sanskrit gacchati, Latin venio "comes" from *gwem-, Greek βαίνω bainō "goes"; cognates in English "come" and German "kommen"). The root conveys motion toward a place or state. Sanskrit and Pali use the same Indo-European root *gwem- seen across European languages.

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

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