‹ Back to the text

anivātā

anivāta

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

1. not gentle; ill-tempered; rude; impolite; lit. not wind down

Built from

• an- — prefix · not, without
  Plain negation. Cognates: English un-, Greek a(n)-. Here negates the whole adjective.
• i- — prefix · like, as if
  Formant of similarity; -iva attaches to create adjectives meaning 'wind-like'.
• vāt — root · blow, wind
  From √vā 'to blow'. Cognates: Latin ventus 'wind', English wind, German Wind. The concrete image is air in motion.
• -a — ending · masculine nominative singular (or other cases)
  Adjective inflection marking nominative/vocative case and gender agreement.

Analysis. an- (not) + ivāta, from iva (like) + vāta (wind); lit. 'not wind-like', i.e. not gentle as wind.

Etymology. The prefix an- negates. vāta derives from √vā 'to blow' (cognate with Latin ventus 'wind', English wind). The suffix -iva forms similarity adjectives. The metaphor treats gentleness as the quality of wind—something that moves without violence—and its negation as rudeness or harshness.

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

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