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tañcassa

sandhi contraction (taṃ + ca + assa)

1. that and his

Built from

• taṃ — root · that
  Accusative singular of the demonstrative ta-. Descends from Indo-European *to-, the base of 'that' across European languages (English that, Latin is-te).
• ca — root · and
  Conjunction. The ṃ of taṃ assimilates before c, producing the dental ñ in the orthography.
• assa — ending · his (genitive)
  Genitive singular of aha-, the reflexive possessive 'self, one's own'. Related to Sanskrit ātman and the reflexive sense of 'ego'; marks possession in this phrase.

Analysis. taṃ (accusative singular of ta-, 'that') + ca (conjunction, 'and') + assa (genitive singular of aha-, 'self, he'; possessive 'his'). The sandhi contraction shows loss of the final ṃ of taṃ before c and coalescence into ñc.

Etymology. taṃ descends from Indo-European *to-, the stem of demonstratives (English 'that', Latin 'is'). assa is the genitive of aha-, related to Sanskrit ātman 'self' and English 'ego' through the root *swe- (one's own). ca is the conjunction, unrelated to the demonstrative or possessive.

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

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