Etymology

karma

kar·ma
K5A1R1M3A1

Today it means: The sum total of a person's actions, which determine the person's next incarnation in samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth. Full definition →

Sanskrit कर्म
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The story

  1. Sanskrit · borrowed fromकर्म
  2. English todaykarma

Borrowed from Sanskrit कर्म (kárma), nom.sg. of कर्मन् (kárman, “act, action, performance”); first attested in English in 1785 in a translation of the Bhagavad Gita by Charles Wilkins.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.