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sabrahmacārī

sabrahmacāri

masc nom pl of sabrahmacāri (noun); masc acc pl of sabrahmacāri (noun); masc voc pl of sabrahmacāri (noun); masc nom sg of sabrahmacārī (noun); …

1. sabrahmacāri (masc): fellow monk; spiritual companion
2. sabrahmacārī (masc): fellow monk; spiritual companion

Built from

• sa — prefix · together with
  Marks association and fellowship. Cognate with English 'same', Latin 'similis', Greek homo- (homophone): things brought into one place or condition.
• brahma — stem · brahma, sacred
  From brahmacariya, the holy life of celibacy and spiritual practice. Brahma here means the highest, the sacred or excellent (not the deity, though the root denotes expansiveness and growth in Vedic thought).
• cāri — stem · going, practising
  From √car 'to walk, go, practise'. The -ī ending marks the noun as referring to one who practises or follows a path (feminine agent noun used here for males in religious contexts, common in Pali).

Analysis. sa- (together with) + brahmacāri (one who practises brahmacariya, the holy celibate life). The compound denotes monks dwelling in the same community and bound by the same vows.

Etymology. sa- (prefix meaning 'together with', from Proto-Indo-European *sem- cognate with English 'same', Latin 'similis') + brahma-cāri, from brahmacariya (the holy life), from Vedic brahmacharya. The term encodes the communal essence of the saṅgha: spiritual companions unified by shared commitment to the renunciate path.

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

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