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The Etymology of Sanskrit guṇá
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2026
Abstract
[The word guṇa was originally an adjective ‘bovine’ from the zero-grade of the base go-. It is formed with the secondary suffix -na-, and the -ṇ- is Prakritic. The adjective is then substantivized in the sense ‘bovine sinew’, from which the meaning shifts to ‘sinew’ and the other derived meanings.]
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- Copyright © 1930 Linguistic Society of America
References
1 Avestan gaonō answers regularly to Skt. *gona; cf. A. V. W. Jackson, Avestan Grammar 1. 18. Late Skt. goṇa, ‘ox’, etc., a Prakritic form from gó, with lingual ṇ, like guṇá, may perhaps be noticed in this connection.
2 The connection of dréṇá with drú is indicated by Uhlenbeck, and seems extremely probable.
3 The earliest case is possibly Tāittirīya Samhitā 7. 2. 4. 2, where guṇá clearly means ‘cord, strand’ (as constituent of a rope). It is impossible to say whether this is earlier or later than Atharva Veda 10. 8. 43, where the precise meaning is not clear; it may be the same. These seem to be the only occurrences recorded in the Vedic Samhitās.
4 It appears to have been first suggested by Geiger, Handbuch der Aveslasprache 227 (1879).
5 On several phases of this etymological study, I have received helpful suggestions from Professor Franklin Edgerton.