karma
KAHR-muh · noun
SanskritEnglish
Origin
Karma comes from Sanskrit कर्मन् (kárman), meaning "act, action, performance," specifically its nominative singular form कर्म (kárma). English borrowed it directly, first appearing in 1785 in Charles Wilkins's translation of the Bhagavad Gita.
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Journey
The word entered English as a translation choice for a Sanskrit philosophical concept, carrying its original sense of "action" and the consequences that follow from it.
Related words
It stands as a direct borrowing rather than part of a larger word family.