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appamattassa

appamatta

masc dat sg of appamatta (pp); nt dat sg of appamatta (pp); masc gen sg of appamatta (pp); nt gen sg of appamatta (pp); …

1. diligent (in); vigilant (about); careful (about); attentive (to); lit. not actively intoxicated
2. small; slight; insignificant; lit. small measure
3. wary; hypervigilant; paranoid (about); lit. not actively intoxicated

Built from

• a — prefix · not, without
  Plain negation. Cognates: English un-, Greek a(n)-.
• pa — prefix · forth, intensive
  Intensifying the negation. Cognates: Greek/Latin pro-, English forth.
• matt — root · be intoxicated, muddled
  From √mad "to be drunk." The concrete image is mental stupor or heedlessness.
• a — ending · masculine singular nominative stem
  Past participle suffix forming the adjectival stem appamatta.

Etymology. a- (not) + pamatta (intoxicated, negligent), from pa- (forth, intensive) + matta (intoxicated, from √mad "to be drunk"). The core image is sobriety of mind—not actively muddled or stupefied. Cognates: √mad relates to Sanskrit matta "drunk"; English "mad" originally meant "intoxicated." The prefix a- negates (Greek a-, English un-), while pa- intensifies the quality being negated, giving the force of "genuinely not intoxicated."

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

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