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anottāpī

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

1. shameless; without regret; without remorse; without concern

Built from

• an- — prefix · not, without
  Plain negation. Cognate with English un- and Greek a(n)- (atheist). Here negates the quality of shame or remorse.
• ottāp- — root · shrinking-back, shame, regret
  Lit. a turning-inward-away from wrongdoing; forms the abstract noun ottāpa (shame, modesty, concern for consequences), which is intrinsic to moral restraint.
• -ī — ending · agent noun, adjective-forming
  Derives adjectives and agent nouns from roots; marks the speaker as endowed with (or lacking) the quality: anottāpī 'one lacking shame'.

Etymology. an- (prefix, not, without) + ottāpa (shame, modesty, concern for consequences); ottāpa itself derives from ot- (to guard, protect oneself) + āpa (coming toward), lit. 'shrinking-back', hence shame as the inward recoil from wrongdoing. No certain Indo-European cognates for ottāpa, but the formation parallels Greek aidos (shame, reverence) as an internal safeguard. The negation an- is cognate with English un-, Greek a(n)-.

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

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