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ārabhathāti

ārabhati

3rd person singular present indicative (with quotative particle iti appended)

1. ārabhati (pr): begins; starts; undertakes; arouses oneself; makes an effort (to)
2. ārabhati (pr): kills; slaughters
3. ārabhi (aor): began; started (to)
4. ārabhi (aor): (of energy) aroused; generated
5. ārabhi (aor): killed, tortured

Built from

• ā — prefix · toward, up
  Reverses or redirects the verbal action toward the speaker or agent; gives the sense of taking something up into oneself.
• rabh — root · seize, grasp
  Concrete imagery of taking hold of something; cognate with English grab and grasp (both from *grebh-).
• atha — ending · 2nd person singular imperative/optative
  Forms a command or optative ('you begin!', 'let begin'); -atha is the second-person ending for this mood.
• iti — ending · quotative particle
  Marks the preceding clause as quoted or recited speech; 'thus', 'so'.

Analysis. ārabhatha + iti: ārabhatha is 2nd person singular imperative/optative of ārabhati; iti is the quotative particle 'thus, so'. The form represents quoted speech: 'begins!' or 'let (one) begin!'

Etymology. ā- (toward, up) + √rabh (to seize, grasp, take hold of), giving the sense 'takes up, grasps at, undertakes'. √rabh is cognate with Sanskrit rabhnāti 'grasps' and the Indo-European root *grebh- underlying English grab and grasp (originally 'to seize').

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

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