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saṅghe

saṅgha

masc acc pl of saṅgha (noun); masc loc sg of saṅgha (noun); fem voc sg of saṅghā (noun)

1. saṅgha (masc): community; fellowship; monastic order
2. saṅgha (masc): group; crowd; mass; multitude; collection; entourage
3. saṅgha (masc): name of a privately awakened Buddha; lit. group
4. saṅghā (fem): name of an arahant nun; lit. community

Built from

• sam — prefix · together
  Brings things into one; here, people gathered as a unified body. Works like Latin con-.
• gha — root · go; come
  From √gam 'motion toward'. Cognate with English 'come' and Latin 'venio'. The concrete imagery is the gathering itself—beings coming together into one place.

Analysis. sam + gam: 'coming together', hence the community of those gathered as one.

Etymology. sam (together) + √gam (go, come). The root gam is cognate with English 'come' and Latin 'venio'. The prefix sam- carries the sense of bringing into unity; gam provides motion. Together they image the concrete act of assembly that becomes the abstract notion of an enduring community.

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

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