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āpajjiṁsu

āpajjati

3rd person plural aorist indicative of āpajjati

1. to fall into, incur
2. to meet with (trouble, danger)
3. to undergo

Built from

• ā — prefix · toward, into
  Reverses motion verbs; here 'comes to' or 'arrives at'. The concrete spatial sense of motion toward becomes the abstract sense of incurring or undergoing.
• pajj — root · fall, befall
  From √pad 'to fall' (Sanskrit padyate). Expresses motion downward or adverse circumstance.
• i — stem · medial stem
  The -i- marks the present/aorist stem of this verb class.
• ṁsu — ending · 3rd plural aorist
  The -su ending marks third person plural in the aorist; -ṁ is a euphonic variant before -su.

Analysis. ā- (toward) + pajjati (falls, befalls), a reversal of the verb pajjati that typically expresses downward or adverse motion; thus literally 'comes to fall into' or 'arrives at (misfortune)'.

Etymology. ā- reverses the sense of pajjati (√pad, 'to fall'). The prefix ā- originally signals motion toward the speaker or completion of an action. Here it shapes the verb to mean meeting with a circumstance, especially an adverse one. Sanskrit āpadyate shows the same formation.

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

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