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asamāhitaṁ

asamāhita

accusative singular neuter of asamāhita (adjective); or nominative/accusative plural neuter

1. unconcentrated
2. unsteady in mind
3. not collected (in meditation)

Built from

• a — prefix · not, without
  Plain negation. Cognates: English un-, Greek a(n)-.
• sam — prefix · together, with
  Things brought into one, collecting completeness. Cognates: English same, Latin con-.
• ā — prefix · toward, up to
  Reverses motion toward the speaker. Cognates: Sanskrit ā; found in compounds with dhā.
• dhā — root · place, put, set
  The core image of mental placing or ordering. Related to Greek tithenai and Latin facere in deep etymology.
• ta — ending · past participle
  Marks the word as a derived adjective or past participle state, here rendered as '-ed' or '-ita'.

Analysis. a- (not) + samāhita (collected, concentrated), the past participle of samādhiyati. Negates the state of mental collectedness central to Buddhist meditation practice.

Etymology. a- (not) + sam- (together) + ā- (toward) + √dhā (place, put). The root samādhiyati means to place together or gather in, hence to concentrate; the prefix a- negates this collected state. Related to Latin facere in its sense of bringing-together, and to English 'do' in the Old Germanic root.

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

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