‹ Back to the text

ogāhetvā

absolutive of ogāheti

1. having submerged; having immersed; having plunged (in); lit. having plunged down

Built from

• o — prefix · down
  Variant of ava- 'downward, off'. Intensifies the downward plunge into water; preserves the concrete image of descent.
• gāh — root · plunge, dive
  √gah denotes immersion in water or plunging into depths. No certain cognate in European languages; the root is aquatic and concrete.
• e — stem · 3rd sg. present stem
  Forms the present-tense stem; here converted to absolutive.
• tvā — ending · absolutive
  Marks the absolutive (or gerund), expressing a completed action anterior to the main verb; 'having done X, then Y'.

Analysis. o- (ava-,

Etymology. From ava- 'down' + gāhati 'plunges, dives' (√gah 'to plunge into water'). The prefix ava- carries its concrete sense of downward motion, intensified by the root's aquatic imagery. No direct cognate in English or Latin, but the spatial composition mirrors how Germanic 'in-' combines with verbs of motion (German 'eingehen' from ein- + gehen).

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

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