ājīvo

ājīva

masc nom sg of ājīva (noun)

livelihood; mode of living; way of life; way of earning a living

Built from

ā — prefix · toward, up to
Motion toward the speaker, or reversal; here it reorients 'living' as 'means of sustenance'. Cognate with Sanskrit ā; no common European reflex.
jīv — root · live, be alive
Proto-Indo-European *gʰwei-. Cognates: English 'quick' (originally 'living'), Sanskrit jīva (living being), Greek bíos (life).
a — ending · masculine singular nominative
The -a ending marks the masculine singular nominative case, standard for nouns of the a-stem class.

Analysis. ā + jīva: ā (toward, up to) + jīva (life, living being). The prefix ā- reverses the semantics of the root √jīv (live): from 'living' to 'the means by which one sustains living', i.e. livelihood as the sustaining principle brought toward oneself.

Etymology. From ā- (toward, up close) + √jīv (live, be alive), cognate with Sanskrit jīva and ultimately Proto-Indo-European *gʰwei- (to live, be alive; cf. English 'quick' in the sense 'living', Greek bíos 'life'). The prefix ā- originally denotes motion toward the speaker or a reversal: here it transforms the abstract notion of 'life' into the concrete 'that by which one maintains life'—one's means of subsistence. In the canon, ājīva is prominent in the Fourth Noble Truth (especially sammā-ājīva, 'right livelihood') and in the Eightfold Path as a criterion of ethical living.

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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