1827, in Buddhism, the sum of a person's actions in one life, which determines his form in the next; from Sanskrit karma "action, work, deed; fate," related to Sanskrit krnoti, Avestan kerenaoiti "makes," Old Persian kunautiy "he makes;" from PIE root *kwer- "to make, form" (see terato-). "Latterly adopted by Western popular 'meditative' groups" [OED, 1989]. It is related to the second element in Sanskrit.