‹ Back to the text

parapuggalānaṁ

parapuggala

genitive plural masculine of parapuggala (compound noun)

1. of other persons
2. of strangers
3. belonging to outsiders

Built from

• para — prefix · other, different
  Originally spatial 'across, beyond'; came to mean 'other' or 'foreign'. Like English 'far', it marks distance and otherness.
• puggala — stem · person, individual
  Borrowed from Sanskrit puruṣa. Compound word, treated as a single stem here; the -a marks the nominative singular stem form.
• ānaṁ — ending · genitive plural
  The -ānaṁ ending marks the genitive plural, showing possession or relation: 'of (other) persons'.

Analysis. para- 'other, different' + puggala 'person, individual'. The compound denotes persons outside one's own circle or doctrine; a key term in Pali legal and monastic discourse for those not of the sangha.

Etymology. Para- is from Proto-Indo-European *per- 'forward, through, across', akin to English 'far' and Latin 'porro' 'forward'; it developed the sense 'other, different' through the notion of what lies beyond or at a distance. Puggala is borrowed from Sanskrit puruṣa 'man, person' (itself cognate to English 'person', Latin 'personāre'), but adapted to the Pali -a stem noun.

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

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