‹ Back to the text

gantuṁ

gacchati

infinitive of gacchati (present tense: 'goes')

1. to go
2. to move
3. to travel
4. to proceed

Built from

• gam — root · go
  The root √gam means motion from place to place. It is related to Latin venīre 'come' and English 'come' through the Indo-European root *gʰem-.
• -tu — ending · infinitive
  The suffix -tu marks the infinitive mood, indicating purpose or intention (e.g. gantukāma 'wishing to go'). The final -ṁ is a nominative/accusative neuter marker.
• -ṁ — ending · nominative/accusative neuter
  This ending marks the infinitive as grammatically neuter and indeclinable.

Analysis. gantuṁ is the infinitive form built from the root √gam 'go' with the infinitive ending -tuṁ (indeclinable). It appears in contexts expressing purpose or intention, e.g. 'able to go', 'went to go'.

Etymology. From Indo-European √*gʰem- 'to go'; cognates include English 'come' (originally from *gʰom-), Latin 'venīre', Greek 'baínein'. The Pali root √gam surfaces in various grades: gacchati (present), agamā (past), gata (past participle 'gone'), and the infinitive gantuṁ.

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

Lite mode — plain HTML for e-readers and old browsers. Full version