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samupabyūḷho

samupabyūḷha

masc nom sg of samupabyūḷha (pp)

1. engaged in battle; engaged in war; (comm) engaged forehead to forehead in giving blows
2. gathered together; amassed; arrayed

Built from

• sam — prefix · together
  Things brought into one unified action or collection.
• upa — prefix · up close, alongside
  Nearness and approach; here reinforces the close, intimate arrangement of forces.
• byudh — root · spread, array, awake
  Cognate with Sanskrit budh and English bud; the concrete image of spreading out or opening applies to arranging in rows.
• a — ending · masculine nominative singular past participle
  Marks the word as agreeing with a masculine subject in nominative case, indicating a completed state of being arranged.

Analysis. sam- (together) + upa- (up close, alongside) + byūḷha (past participle of √byudh, spread or array). The prefix pair sam-upa- intensifies the sense of gathering and arranging: things brought together in close proximity, then spread out in formation for battle.

Etymology. From sam- (Indo-European *sem-, English same, Latin similis) and upa- (Indo-European *upo-, related to Greek hypo-, Latin sub-, English up), combined with the root √byudh (to awake, spread, array), which is cognate with Sanskrit budh and English words like bud (what opens or spreads out). The military sense emerges from the concrete image of warriors arranged and positioned together.

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

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