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jāti

fem nom sg of jāti (noun); fem voc sg of jāti (noun)

1. birth; rebirth; conception
2. class; caste; social status; lit. birth
3. age; years; lit. birth
4. type; kind; category (of)

Built from

• jā — root · be born, become
  The root jan (jā in Pali) appears in Latin gignere, Greek gignesthai, English kin, all sharing the sense of birth and origin. The concrete image is the emergence of a new being.
• ti — ending · nominalization; state or condition
  The feminine abstract noun suffix -ti converts the verbal root into a noun denoting the state, action, or outcome of that root. Here it forms jāti from jā, meaning 'the condition of being born' and thence 'birth, kind, class'.

Etymology. From √jan (to be born, to become), cognate with Latin gignere and Greek gignesthai (to be born), English kin. The abstract noun -ti suffix converts the root into a nominalization meaning 'the fact or condition of being born' and by extension 'class or type (as one's station at birth)' and 'age (time since birth)'.

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

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