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anissito

anissita

masc nom sg of anissita (pp)

1. detached (from); disengaged (from); separated (from); independent (of)
2. (of speech) free flowing; unhindered; lit. unsupported
3. (vinaya) without formal support; free from dependence; lit. not supported

Built from

• an- — prefix · not, without
  Plain negation, as in avijjā 'non-knowing'. Cognates: English un-, Greek a(n)-.
• issita — stem · supported, leaned upon
  Past participle of √i 'to go, support'; the opposite image of upādāna 'fuel taken up'. Here, the absence of support signals independence and detachment.
• -a — ending · masculine nominative singular
  Marks the word as masculine singular nominative, identifying the subject of a sentence or the predicate complement.

Analysis. an- (not) + issita (supported, pp of √i 'to go, support'); literally 'not supported'

Etymology. The prefix an- is plain negation (English un-, Greek a(n)-). The root √i 'to go, support' (Sanskrit √i) generates issita 'supported, leaned upon'; the concrete image is the inverse of upādāna 'taking up close'—here the sense is 'not leaned upon, not propped up', hence independent and self-reliant. In the Vinaya, anissita means free from reliance on a teacher's formal support; in doctrinal usage, it describes the arahant's detachment from all supports.

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

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