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sahassaguṇā

sahassaguṇa

masc nom pl of sahassaguṇa (adj); fem nom sg of sahassaguṇa (adj); fem nom pl of sahassaguṇa (adj); nt nom pl of sahassaguṇa (adj); …

1. worth one thousand times more; one thousand times more valuable; lit. thousand times

Built from

• sahassa — root · thousand
  Pali sahassa (Skr. sahasra) denotes the numeral; used attributively in compounds to express vast multiples. The word is ancient and appears across Indo-European: cf. Greek khílioi and Latin mille (though mille has a different etymology). In Buddhist contexts, 'thousand' often signals incalculable abundance.
• guṇa — root · quality, virtue, strand
  Skr. guṇa (also thread, string, quality, virtue); from *gwen-/gwon- 'to twist, weave'. Cognate with English 'twine', Latin nere 'spin'. In Buddhist Pali, guṇa denotes the wholesome qualities (sīla, samādhi, paññā) that compose virtue and wisdom. The root imagery of 'woven strands' underlies its meaning: virtues as threads composing the fabric of conduct.
• -ā — ending · nominative singular/plural (fem.)
  Feminine nominative singular or plural marker (-ā) agreeing with a feminine noun (understood, e.g., guṇā 'qualities' or implied 'worth/value'). The inflection agrees with the adjective's function modifying a feminine substantive.

Analysis. sahassa (thousand) + guṇa (quality, virtue, factor). A compound adjective: 'having a thousand qualities' or 'multiplied by a thousand', used in canonical contexts to express the immense superiority of the Buddha's knowledge, merit, or power over ordinary beings' (e.g., Dhp. v. 280, where the Buddha's moral training is declared sahassaguṇā compared to a lay follower's).

Etymology. Sahassa derives from Pali/Sanskrit *sahasra, the feminine form of which (sahassī) enters Greek as khílioi 'thousand' through borrowing in the other direction; guṇa (quality, string, strand) is a broadly Indo-European word meaning that which is 'twisted' or 'woven together', from the root *gwen-/gwon-, cognate with English 'twine' and Latin nere 'spin'. The compound externalizes the spatial image of multiplicity: not one quality but a thousand interwoven strands.

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

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