Etymology
It can simply be said to be the present participle of the root as "to be" (PIE *h₁es-; cognate to English is).
The concept is famously expressed in a mantra found in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (1.3.28),
- Asato mā sad gamaya / tamaso mā jyotir gamaya / mṛtyor mā amṛtam gamaya
- "lead me from delusion to truth; from darkness to light; from mortality to immortality"
Sat has been adapted as: sattva "purity" and satya "truth".
Its negation asat consequently refers to nonexistence and falsehood.
Read more about this topic: Sat (Sanskrit)
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)