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gammo

gamma

masc nom sg of gamma (adj); masc nom sg of gamma (ptp)

1. vulgar; common; lit. of the village
2. what should be understood or attained

Built from

• gam — root · go, come
  Cognate with English come, Latin venīre, Greek báinō. The spatial imagery of approach and frequentation underlies the sense of commonness.
• -ma — ending · agent/result
  Nominalizing suffix forming agent nouns and nomina actionis, comparable to Latin -men (nomen from √gno). Here it marks 'that which is gone to' or 'that which goes/belongs'.

Analysis. From √gam (go) + -ma (agent/result suffix); lit. 'that which is gone to' → 'common, vulgar' (frequented by the masses); or 'village-related' (gāma 'village').

Etymology. Root √gam cognate with English come, Latin venio; the suffix -ma forms agent nouns and nomina actionis (compare Latin -men in nomen from √gno 'know'). The shift from concrete 'what is approached/frequented' to abstract 'common, vulgar' follows the semantic path of many agent nouns in Indo-European.

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

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