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āsavanirodhagāminī

āsavanirodhagāmī

fem nom sg of āsavanirodhagāmī (adj); fem nom pl of āsavanirodhagāmī (adj); fem acc pl of āsavanirodhagāmī (adj); fem voc sg of āsavanirodhagāmī (adj)

1. leading to the cessation of the effluents

Built from

• ā — prefix · toward, up to
  Reverses the motion; here 'toward the speaker' or 'culminating in'.
• sava — root · flow, flowing
  From √su (to flow); cognate with Latin suere (to sew, flow). Concrete image: the flow of desire and attachment toward the mind.
• nirodha — stem · cessation, stopping
  ni (down, into) + rodha (binding, closing). The concrete image is pressing down and shutting in; in Buddhist usage, the active stopping of defilements.
• gāmī — stem · going, leading to
  From √gam (go); used adjectivally to mean 'that which goes toward' or 'conduces to.' Cognate with English come, Latin venire. The concreteness of locomotion carries into the abstract sense of a path or practice.

Analysis. āsava (effluent, mental poison) + nirodha (cessation, stopping) + gāmī (going, leading to). A compound epithet for the path (magga) that conduces to the extinction of the āsavas: sensual desire, becoming, and ignorance—the root poisons in Buddhist analysis.

Etymology. āsava from ā + sava (flowing toward the speaker); nirodha from ni + rodha (closing down, binding); gāmī from √gam (go). The prefix ā- reverses the sense of flowing outward, and ni- intensifies the shutting-down. gāmī preserves the concreteness of 'going' as 'the path that goes toward' or 'conduces to.' In doctrinal use, the phrase emphasizes the soteriological goal: the eightfold path as the way that leads to the extinction of all defilements.

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

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