Kama
/ˈkɑːmə/noun
In Sanskrit, desire, love, pleasure, or sensual enjoyment; also the Hindu god of love.
Did you know?In Hindu tradition, Kama is both an abstract principle of desire and a deity, and his mythic destruction by Shiva shows how powerfully ancient cultures treated desire as a cosmic force.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*kam-
“to desire, love”
Vedic Sanskrit
Sanskrit
kāma
“desire, wish, love, pleasure”
Classical Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Kāma
“the god or principle of love and desire”
19th Century
English
kama
“borrowed scholarly/transliterated form used for Sanskrit concepts”
Modern English
English
kama
“a transliterated Sanskrit word meaning desire or love, especially in spiritual or philosophical contexts”