‹ Back to the text

adinnādānā

adinnādāna

nt nom pl of adinnādāna (noun); nt instr sg of adinnādāna (noun); nt abl sg of adinnādāna (noun); nt voc sg of adinnādāna (noun); …

1. theft; stealing; lit. taking what is not given; taking what is not offered

Built from

• a- — prefix · not, without
  Privative negation. Cognate with English un-, Greek a(n)-, Latin in-.
• dinna — stem · given
  Past participle of dāti 'gives' (√dā). Cognate with Latin dare, English donation, Sanskrit dā-.
• ā- — prefix · toward, up to
  Reverses or redirects motion toward the speaker. Concretely, what should be given toward the owner is taken toward the thief.
• dāna — stem · taking, gift
  Verbal noun from √dā. In Buddhist ethics, dāna means generosity; here, the criminal act of taking.

Analysis. a-dinna-ā-dāna: 'not-given' + 'taking'. A-dinna (a- 'not' + dinna, past participle of dāti 'gives') means 'not given, not offered'; ā-dāna (ā- 'toward' + dāna 'taking') means 'taking toward oneself'. The compound expresses theft as the act of taking what has not been given—a cardinal precept violation in Buddhist ethics.

Etymology. From a- (negation) + dinna (past participle of dāti, cognate with Latin dare 'to give', Sanskrit dā-) + ā (directional prefix 'toward') + dāna (taking, from dāti). The root dā- appears in English 'donation' and Latin dōnum 'gift'. The prefix ā- reverses the motion: what should come toward the owner (be given) instead goes toward the thief.

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

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