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appātaṅkatañca

appātaṅkatā

feminine nominative singular + enclitic ca; lit. 'little-sickness state'

1. health; wellness; well-being; lit. little sickness state

Built from

• appa — root · little, few
  Cognate with Latin paucus; conveys diminution.
• ā — prefix · toward, into
  Directional prefix turning taṅka (sickness) inward; here part of the adjective base.
• taṅka — root · sickness, suffering
  A burden or weight concept; related to Sanskrit taṅg- and the idea of being weighed down.
• ta — ending · past participle
  Forms the adjective ātaṅkata 'afflicted with sickness'.
• ā — ending · feminine nominative
  Feminine abstract noun ending converting the compound into a state-word (appātaṅkatā 'the state of little-sickness').
• ca — ending · and, also
  Enclitic conjunction attaching to the preceding word in the nominative.

Analysis. appātaṅkataṃ (little-sickness state, i.e., freedom from sickness) + ca (and, also); a compound expressing the state of being free from disease, hence health and flourishing.

Etymology. appā- (little, slight; from appa, cognate with Latin paucus 'few') + ātaṅkata (sickness-afflicted, from ā + taṅka 'sickness'; taṅka cognate with German 'Dank' in the sense of heaviness, burden of suffering). The whole conveys 'diminished sickness', reanalyzed as 'absence of sickness', thus health.

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

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