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akālo

akāla

masc nom sg of akāla (noun); masc nom sg of akāla (adj)

1. inappropriate time; unsuitable time; not the time (for)
2. wrong season; not the season (for)
3. out of season; unseasonal; lit. not in time

Built from

• a- — prefix · not, without
  Plain negation. Cognates: English un-, Greek a(n)- (atheist). Here negates kāla to mean 'not-time', the wrong moment.
• kāla — root · time, season
  From PIE *kʷel- (to turn), cognate with Latin cōlō (to cultivate), Greek kýklos (circle). The root imagery is of time's turning and cyclical movement.

Analysis. a- (not) + kāla (time, season); literally 'not-time', used to denote a moment unsuitable for an action or practice.

Etymology. The prefix a- (without, not) + kāla (time, season), from PIE *kʷel- (to turn, move, cf. Latin cōlō 'to cultivate, dwell', Greek kýklos 'circle'). The root sense of kāla is the turning of time, its cyclical movement; akāla negates this—the unseasonable, untimely moment that falls outside the natural rhythm.

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

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