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nigamā

nigama

masc nom pl of nigama (noun); masc instr sg of nigama (noun); masc abl sg of nigama (noun); masc voc sg of nigama (noun); …

1. town; market town; lit. going down
2. town; market town; lit. going down

Built from

• ni — prefix · down, into
  Directional prefix marking descent or entry into a location. Cognates: English nether, German nieder.
• gam — root · go, come
  Root of motion. The concrete sense 'going down (into a place)' becomes 'settlement, town'. Cognate with English come, Sanskrit gacchati; from Indo-European *gʰem-.

Analysis. ni- (down, into) + √gam (go): a place where people go down into, i.e. gather or settle.

Etymology. From ni- (down, into) + √gam (go, from Sanskrit gam-; cognate with English come via different ablaut grades of the Indo-European root *gʰem-). The spatial sense 'going down into' shifted to 'settlement, town' as a place of habitation and gathering. Compare Sanskrit nigama (market, town, the Vedas as 'received tradition') and English come, Latin venio.

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

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