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somanassaṁ

somanassa

accusative singular neuter of somanassa (noun)

1. gladness, joy
2. mental happiness
3. pleasure of mind (in Buddhist psychology, one of the cetasika mental factors)

Built from

• saṁ — prefix · together, completely
  The spatial sense of bringing things into one place; here applied to the mind unified in a state of brightness and pleasure.
• manas — root · mind
  From √man 'to think'; cognate with English 'mind', Latin 'mens', Sanskrit 'manas'. The core sense is mental awareness.
• a — ending · nominal suffix
  Forms a neuter noun; in the accusative singular, inflected to -aṁ by sandhi rules.

Analysis. saṁ + manas + a: sam- (together) + manas (mind) + -a (nominal suffix); literally 'mind brought together', hence unified, bright, pleased

Etymology. sam- + manas: the prefix sam- (together, completely; cognate with English 'same', Latin con-) added to manas (mind, from the root √man 'to think', cognate with English 'mind', Latin mens). The spatial sense of sam- (things brought into one) carries the abstract meaning of mental unification into joy.

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

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