‹ Back to the text

anāsavā

anāsava

masc nom pl of anāsava (adj); fem nom sg of anāsava (adj); fem nom pl of anāsava (adj); nt nom pl of anāsava (adj); …

1. free from the effluents; taint-less; undefiled; epithet of Nibbāna
2. name of a privately awakened Buddha; lit. free from effluents

Built from

• an- — prefix · not, without
  Plain negation. Cognate with English un- and Greek a(n)-.
• ā- — prefix · toward, up to
  Reverses or intensifies motion; here "flowing toward", hence "influx" or "effluent".
• sav — root · flow
  Root denoting motion of liquid. Cognate with Latin secare and English "sap".
• -a — ending · masculine stem (nom sg base)
  Nominal stem formant; the nominative plural nominalization.

Analysis. an- (prefix: not, without) + āsava (flowing toward, effluent). The compound negates the notion of taints—mental effluents or corruptions—that flow toward and bind the mind. A key doctrinal term for Nibbāna and the arahat.

Etymology. an- from Indo-European *ne "not" (English "no", Greek a-), + āsava from ā- (toward) + √sav (flow), cognate with Latin secare and English "sap". The prefix ā- reverses the motion to yield "flowing toward" or "convergence", hence "influx" or "effluent"; negated, it denotes freedom from the three or four āsavas (kāmāsava, bhavāsava, diṭṭhāsava, avijjāsava) that perpetuate saṁsāra.

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

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