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gharāvāso

gharāvāsa

masc nom sg of gharāvāsa (noun)

1. household life; domestic life; living at home

Built from

• gharā — root · house
  From Sanskrit gṛha; related to Germanic and Baltic words for dwelling and room.
• vāsa — root · dwelling, abode
  From √vas 'to dwell, remain'. The root carries the concrete sense of settling in a place, remaining there. Used doctrinally for both lay household life and monastic residence (vihāra).
• a — ending · nominative singular
  Masculine nominative singular ending marking the subject in this clause.

Analysis. gharā (house, from Sanskrit gṛha) + vāsa (dwelling, abode, from √vas 'to dwell'). The compound describes the lay life spent in domestic surroundings, in contrast to the monastic life (pabbajjā) lived apart from the household.

Etymology. gharā derives from Sanskrit gṛha (cognate with Lithuanian žernis 'room'), and vāsa from the root √vas (to dwell, remain) which is related to Latin vasus and English 'wise' in the sense of 'manner' or 'way of being'. The pairing gharā-vāsa forms a standard Buddhist term marking the lay state.

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

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