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rāgo

rāga

masc nom sg of rāga (noun)

1. desire; passion; lust; greed (for); infatuation (with); lit. attachment
2. colour, hue, dye

Built from

• rāg- — root · colour, dye, attach
  From √rañj 'to dye, colour'. The concrete image of dye adhering to cloth becomes metaphorically the staining or attachment of desire to the mind.
• -a — ending · masc nom sg
  Masculine singular nominative case marker in Sanskrit/Pali nominal declension. Here instantiates the bare stem as subject of a sentence or cited form.

Etymology. From √rañj 'to colour, dye, be coloured', whence also rañjati 'colours, dyes' and ranjana 'colouring'. The sense evolved from the concrete image of dye soaking into cloth (attachment of colour to material) to emotional attachment and desire. Sanskrit rāga shares the same root and semantic range. Cognate with Latin rūgō 'wrinkle' (creasing/marking surfaces) and possibly Old Norse rekkja 'to stretch, strain'.

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

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