‹ Back to the text

avajānāti

pr 3rd sg of avajānāti (verb)

1. denies; disagrees; does not accept; lit. knows down
2. despises; disdains; looks down (on); is condescending (to); lit. knows down

Built from

• ava — prefix · down, downward
  Spatial prefix denoting motion or direction downward, often implying degradation or reduction. Cognate with Latin au- (aufero 'carry off') and English off.
• jā — root · know, recognize
  From Indo-European *ǵn-eh₂-, the same root as English 'know', Latin gnōscō, and Greek gignṓskō. In Pali it forms √jānāti 'knows' and compounds with prefixes to specify the manner or direction of knowing.
• nāti — ending · 3rd sg present
  3rd person singular present indicative of active verbs. Marks the speaker's statement of what the subject knows or does in present time.

Analysis. ava + jānāti: ava 'down, downward' + √jñā 'knows', hence 'knows downward' or 'recognizes as inferior', giving the sense of contempt and rejection.

Etymology. ava- (down, off; cognate with Latin au- in aufero 'carry off', English over in the sense of looking down) + √jñā (Indo-European *ǵn-eh₂-, the root of English 'know', Latin gnōscō, Greek gignṓskō). The prefix's spatial sense of 'down' becomes cognitive: to place knowledge downward is to regard something as beneath oneself.

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

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