‹ Back to the text

abhikkhaṇanti

abhikkhaṇati

pr 3rd pl of abhikkhaṇati (verb)

1. digs; turns up the soil; lit. digs deeper

Built from

• abhi — prefix · toward, over
  Bearing down on something; the concrete sense of facing and pressing toward something becomes intensification of the action.
• khaṇ — root · dig, scrape
  From PIE *ghen-; cognate with Sanskrit khan-, meaning to strike or scrape at the ground.
• a — ending · 3rd singular present
  The thematic vowel a marks the present stem; -ti marks 3rd person singular, but the form -anti here is 3rd plural present indicative.

Analysis. abhi- (toward, bearing down) + khaṇati (digs); the prefix intensifies the sense of digging into or breaking up the ground.

Etymology. abhi- (toward, over) from PIE *obhi-, cognate with Latin ob- (observe, obtain); khaṇ- is the root meaning dig or scrape, related to Sanskrit khan- and PIE *ghen- (to strike, scrape); the combination yields the sense of digging into or breaking ground thoroughly.

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

Lite mode — plain HTML for e-readers and old browsers. Full version