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samaṇamuṇḍikāputtassa

samaṇamuṇḍikāputta

masc dat sg of samaṇamuṇḍikāputta (noun); masc gen sg of samaṇamuṇḍikāputta (noun)

1. son of the ascetic Muṇḍikā; lit. son of the bald ascetic

Built from

• samaṇa — root · ascetic
  From Sanskrit śramaṇa, 'one who labors'; originally meant a practitioner of austerity or renunciation. The term became the standard Buddhist word for a wandering monk or renunciate.
• muṇḍikā — stem · bald one
  Feminine diminutive of muṇḍa 'bald, shaven-headed', a name-epithet. The bald or shaved head is the visible mark of the ascetic.
• putta — stem · son
  From Sanskrit putra, 'son'; indicates relationship or possession. Common in Pali patronymics and name formations.
• ssa — ending · genitive/dative singular
  The -ssa ending marks either genitive ('of') or dative ('to, for'), depending on syntactic context; here it marks possession or attribution of the name to the person being referenced.

Analysis. A compound personal name formed from samaṇa (ascetic) + muṇḍikā (a feminine name meaning 'bald one', from muṇḍa 'shaven-headed') + putta (son); literally 'son of the bald ascetic'. The form -kāputtassa is genitive/dative singular, showing the name is functioning as a noun in the accusative/attributive case (possessive sense: 'of/to [the name]').

Etymology. samaṇa derives from Sanskrit śramaṇa, one who labors or practices austerity—the term for wandering ascetics, cognate with Greek σχολή (scholē) 'leisure' and the conceptual root of 'effort'; muṇḍa 'bald, shaven' is connected to Sanskrit muṇḍa, possibly from a root meaning 'to shave' or 'round'; putta 'son' is the regular Pali reflex of Sanskrit putra, cognate with English 'put' in the sense of 'swell forth' and Latin 'putus'.

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

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