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This analysis traces the origins and meaning shifts of the Sanskrit term guṇa, indicating its linguistic evolution.
[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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Carlton C. Rice (1930) studied this question.
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