‹ Back to the text

attanāva

atta

instrumental singular masculine + emphatic particle eva

1. atta (masc): self; soul; spirit; essence
2. attanā (masc): with oneself; by oneself
3. attanā (masc): from oneself; than oneself
4. atta (masc): body; form

Built from

• atta — root · self
  Proto-Indo-European *h₂et-no-, reflexive pronoun. Cognates: Sanskrit ātman, Latin ipse, Greek autos. Denotes the essential, autonomous agent—one's own core identity.
• nā — ending · instrumental singular
  The instrumental case suffix marks the agent or means by which an action is performed. Here: 'by means of self', hence 'by oneself' or 'of one's own accord'.
• va — ending · emphatic particle
  Enclitic particle (often written eva or iva) meaning 'indeed' or 'just' or 'itself'. Intensifies the preceding word: 'the very self', 'by one's own hand alone'. Ancient deictic element related to *ewo-.

Analysis. attanāva = attanā (instrumental singular of atta, 'self') + eva (emphatic particle 'indeed, itself'). Attanā expresses the agent or instrument ('by oneself'), and eva reinforces the sense: 'by one's very self' or 'of one's own accord'. Common in canonical phrases like attanāva kattabbaṁ 'it must be done by oneself'.

Etymology. Atta descends from Proto-Indo-European *h₂et-no- (reflexive/self), cognate with Sanskrit ātman and Old English æt 'at' (originally denoting closeness to oneself). The root *h₂et- ('self, own') appears in Latin ipse ('self') and Greek autos ('self'). Eva is an ancient particle of assertion and emphasis, related to the Indo-European deictic stem *ewo- (evident in English 'even').

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

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