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avadhi

aor 3rd sg of avadhi (verb); aor 2nd sg of avadhi (verb); masc nom sg of avadhi (noun); masc voc sg of avadhi (noun)

1. beat; struck; hurt
2. boundary, limit
3. limit, limitation

Built from

• ava — prefix · down, off
  Downward motion or force; cognate Latin au- (aufero 'carry off'). Here: placing something down forcefully (to strike) or marking a point downward (to set a boundary).
• dhā — root · place, put, set
  Core image: putting or laying something down. Cognate: Greek τίθημι (tithēmi 'place'), Latin facio 'make', English 'do'. In avadhi, the downward placement becomes both the act of striking and the notion of a fixed limit or boundary.

Analysis. ava + √dhā: 'placed down', hence fixed point or boundary; as verb, 'struck down'.

Etymology. ava (down, off) + √dhā (place, put): the downward placement imagery underlies both 'strike' (putting force down on something) and 'boundary' (a limit set or marked). Cognate: Latin facio 'make', Greek τίθημι 'place' (same root as Pali dhā); English 'do' is distantly related. The prefix ava- (down, off) appears in Latin aufero 'carry off'.

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

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