>Dear Vishwanath and friends,
>
>I am just curious. Does namaste has the same root as Pali namassati?
>Do they have the same meaning?
>
>>From the PED, namassati is a verb, meaning to pay honour to, to
>venerate, to do homage to.
>
>What about namaste?

namaste = namas te

namas is a noun, and te is a second person dative enclitic form. honour to you.

namas is the Sanskrit form which in Pali is almost always represented
by 'namo' as in "namo tassa bhagavato" (note the dative/genitives).
One could also say "namo buddhaaya", using an explicitly dative form.

I believe the verb namassati is a denominative verb, that is to say a
verb derived by adding the '-ya' suffix to a noun. namas + ya + ti.
the 'y' assimilates to the preceding -s- yielding namas-sa-ti.

best regards,

/Rett