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tathāgate

tathāgata

masc acc pl of tathāgata (noun); masc loc sg of tathāgata (noun)

1. Such Become; realized; being in such a state; arrived at the truth; epithet of the Buddha

Built from

• tathā — stem · thus, in such manner
  An adverbial stem of obscure origin; in this compound it modifies the entire phrase to mean 'having gone thus' (i.e. by the proper path to enlightenment).
• ā — prefix · toward, to
  Reverses motion verbs; ā-√gam means 'comes' or 'arrives' (motion toward the speaker), contrasting with simple gam 'goes'.
• gam — root · go
  Cognate with Sanskrit gam, Latin venio, English come. The concrete sense of going is here metaphorical: reaching enlightenment.
• ta — ending · past participle
  Forms āgata 'come, arrived'; marks the completed action of reaching (the truth).

Analysis. tathā + āgata. Tathā (thus, in such a manner) + āgata (come, arrived: ā-√gam with past participle ending). The compound means 'thus-gone' or 'thus-arrived', referring to one who has reached the state of a fully enlightened Buddha by following the path.

Etymology. √gam (go) with prefix ā- (toward the speaker, reversing motion to mean arrival) and suffix -ta (past participle). Cognates: Sanskrit gam- (go), Latin venio (come), English come. Tathā from Sanskrit tathā (thus), related to the demonstrative tat- (that); the exact etymology is obscure but may relate to *tat- (pointing) + -hā (how, manner).

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

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