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āhāranirodhañca
āhāranirodha
masculine nominative singular with postpositive ca "and"
- ending of sustenance; cessation of fuel
Built from
- ā — prefix · toward
Reverses or directs motion; here marks the taking-in of food and fuel toward oneself.
- har — root · carry, bear
Indo-European *ser- (to carry); cognate with English "series", Latin "serere". The concrete sense of bearing/carrying becomes the abstract sense of sustaining.
- a — ending · nominalizer
Creates the masculine noun āhāra (that which is carried, sustenance).
- ni — prefix · down, into
Marks descent and closure; combines with roots of obstruction to mean cessation or restraint.
- rudh — root · obstruct, stop
Sanskrit rudh-; the concrete image of blocking or barring a path becomes the abstract sense of halting a process.
- a — ending · nominalizer
Creates the masculine noun nirodha (obstruction, cessation).
- ca — ending · and
Postpositive conjunction; attaches to the preceding noun in the nominative case to coordinate or link clauses.
Analysis. āhāra (fuel, sustenance) + nirodha (cessation, restraint): the stopping of the nutriment that feeds craving and becoming. In the twelve-fold dependent origination, āhāranirodha marks the interruption of the cycle—where nutriment is cut off, craving cannot persist.
Etymology. āhāra from ā (toward) + √har (to carry, bear): what is borne toward oneself, hence food or fuel. nirodha from ni (down, into) + √rudh (to obstruct, stop): a blocking-down, cessation. The compound is a standard Pali doctrinal term for the breaking of the chain of conditioned arising.