pubbaṅgamo

pubbaṅgama

masc nom sg of pubbaṅgama (adj)

preceding (in); leading (in); first (in); as forerunner (of); lit. going before

Built from

pubba — stem · former, prior
From the root meaning 'forward, through' (PIE *per-), cognate with Sanskrit pūrva, Latin prīmus. Describes position in time or sequence.
ṅgama — stem · going, motion
From gam- (go); the ṅ is a nasal infix/assimilation mark. Preserves the spatial imagery of movement, here directed backward in time to what comes first.

Analysis. pubba + ṅgama; pubba (adj. stem meaning 'former, prior') + ṅgama (from gacchati 'goes', with the prefix a- assimilated into the initial g-). Literally 'going before'; used in compounds and as a descriptor of one who leads or precedes in the spiritual path.

Etymology. pubba derives from Proto-Indo-European *per- or *poro- 'forward, through'; Sanskrit pūrva 'former, previous', Greek poros 'passage, ford', Latin prīmus 'first'. The sense 'before in time or sequence' is original to the root. ṅgama is from gam- 'go' (Sanskrit gam-, Latin venire 'come' is distantly related through a different root). The compound transfers the spatial sense 'going before' into the temporal meaning 'preceding'.

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

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