‹ Back to the text

sarāgo

sarāga

masc nom sg of sarāga (adj)

1. with greed; with lust; desirous; passionate; inflamed; infatuated

Built from

• sa — prefix · with, together
  From sam-; marks association or combination. Here the subject is brought into or identified with greed.
• rāg — root · greed, color, tint
  The root sense is to stain or inflame. Cognate with Latin regere 'to rule' and Sanskrit rañjati 'to color, dye'; the emotional sense follows from the image of coloring or staining the mind.
• a — ending · masculine nominative singular
  Marks the singular masculine nominative form of the adjective.

Analysis. sa + rāga, 'with greed': sa is the prefix meaning 'with, together' (from sam-); rāga is greed, desire, or the emotional coloring that clouds judgment.

Etymology. From sa (with, together) + rāga (greed, desire). Rāga is cognate with Latin regere 'to rule' and Sanskrit rañjati 'to color, dye': the root sense is 'to tint or inflame'. The prefix sa- (from sam-) means bringing things together, and here brings the subject into contact with greed—the person becomes 'together with greed,' stained by it. In Buddhist doctrine, sarāga marks the mind that has not shed its defilements (kilesa), contrasted with virāga, freedom from greed.

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

Lite mode — plain HTML for e-readers and old browsers. Full version