‹ Back to the text

appahānā

appahāna

nt nom pl of appahāna (noun); nt instr sg of appahāna (noun); nt abl sg of appahāna (noun); nt voc sg of appahāna (noun); …

1. not giving up; not letting go; not removing (of); not abandoning; lit. not actively abandoning

Built from

• a — prefix · not, without
  Privative negation. Cognates: English un-, Greek a(n)-.
• ppa — root · leave, abandon
  Variant of √hā (to leave, abandon). Cognate with Sanskrit hā and Greek χαίρω (chairō), originally to cast away.
• hāna — stem · abandoning, removal
  Nominal stem from √hā, -ana- suffix forming action nouns. Construed as the abstract noun of the action.

Analysis. appa + hāna: a + ppa + hāna. The prefix a- (not, without) negates hāna (abandoning, removal), itself from √hā (to leave, abandon). The doubled -pp- is the Pali gemination of -p- before a following vowel in compounds.

Etymology. a- (not, without) + √hā (to leave, abandon). √hā is cognate with Sanskrit hā, Greek χαίρω (chairō, rejoice — originally to leave behind, be rid of), and English hue in the sense of throwing or casting. The prefix a- plainly negates the action: thus 'not-abandoning'.

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

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