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parisā

fem nom sg of parisā (noun); fem nom pl of parisā (noun); fem acc pl of parisā (noun); fem voc pl of parisā (noun)

1. assembly; meeting; forum; council; gathering; lit. sitting around
2. retinue; community; circle; following

Built from

• pari — prefix · around, round about
  From the same root as Greek perí (perimeter, periscope) and *peri-. The spatial sense of going all the way round persists in abstract contexts, marking completeness and totality.
• sā — ending · feminine nominative/oblique
  Feminine -ā nominative singular suffix, also used for plural forms in Pali. Marks the noun as feminine and indicates person or personified entity.

Analysis. pari (around) + √sad/sid (sit): a sitting-around, those gathered in a circle.

Etymology. From pari- (around, all the way round—from *peri-, cognate with Greek perí and English peri-) and √sad (sit, settle—from *sed-, cognate with English sit, Latin sedēs, Greek hédra). The concrete image: people sitting all around a center, hence an assembly or community. The prefix pari- expresses the completeness of a gathering.

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

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