‹ Back to the text

nikāmalābhī

masc nom sg of nikāmalābhī (adj); masc nom pl of nikāmalābhī (adj); fem nom sg of nikāmalābhī (adj); nt nom pl of nikāmalābhī (adj); …

1. who easily gets; who gains at will; lit. gaining one's desire

Built from

• ni — prefix · down, into
  The prefix marks internalization or achievement of the desire. Cognate with English nether.
• kāma — stem · desire, wish
  Root meaning: what is desired or wished for. Cognate with Latin camare 'to love'.
• lābhī — stem · one who gains
  Agent noun from √labh 'to take, obtain'. Cognate with Latin laborāre and Greek λαμβάνειν 'to take'.

Analysis. ni-kāma-lābhī: ni (down, into) + kāma (desire) + lābhī (one who gains). The prefix ni- here marks the desire as internalized or achieved; the compound means 'one who gains desire'—i.e. obtains what one wishes for.

Etymology. From ni- (down, into) + kāma (desire, Skt. kāma, cognate with Lat. camare 'to love') + lābhī (one who gains, from √labh 'to take, gain', cognate with Lat. laborāre, Gk. λαμβάνειν). The sense shifted from 'gaining desire' to 'gaining one's desire' or 'gaining at will'.

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

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