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keci

kaci

masc nom pl of kaci (pron); masc acc pl of kaci (pron)

1. kaci (pron): someone; something; anyone; anything; whoever
2. keci (pron): whoever; whatever; whichever; some; any
3. keci (pron): (commentary) some learned monks; some commentators (say)

Built from

• ka — root · who, what
  Interrogative and relative pronoun stem; the concrete sense is deixis — pointing to an unknown person or thing. Cognate with Greek tis, Latin quis; English 'queer' derives from the same Indo-European root.
• ci — ending · indefinite marker
  Enclitic particle expressing indefiniteness. When suffixed to ka-, it turns the interrogative 'who?' into the indefinite 'someone, anyone, whoever'. Sanskrit has the parallel -cit and Greek -tis (in tis).

Etymology. From the indefinite pronoun stem ka- (interrogative 'who, what'), with the indeclinable enclitic particle -ci marking indefiniteness. Sanskrit cognate: kaścit (who + the indefinite particle cit). The particle -ci is related to the Pali interrogative particle kim 'whether', and to Greek tis (indefinite 'someone, anyone'). The sense 'whoever, whatever' arises from the interrogative stem used with the indefinite marker: literally 'who/what at all'.

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

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