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bhūtato

bhūta

masc abl sg of bhūta (pp); nt abl sg of bhūta (pp); nt abl sg of bhūta (noun); masc abl sg of bhūta (noun); …

1. bhūta (pp): existing; born; living; lit. become
2. bhūta (pp): true; correct; genuine; accurate; lit. become
3. bhūta (nt): being; living being; entity; lit. become
4. bhūta (pp): become; born
5. bhūta (nt): state; elemental state; element; lit. become
6. bhūta (masc): plant; lit. grown
7. bhūta (masc): born being; animal; creature; lit. become
8. bhūta (pp): like; as; similar to; lit. become
9. …

Built from

• bhū — root · become, be
  The core sense is coming-into-being or existing; the concrete image is growth or emergence. Cognates with English be, German bin, Latin fuī.
• ta — ending · past participle
  Past participle marker, making bhūta 'what has become, what is'.
• to — ending · ablative singular
  Ablative case ending; here conveys 'from, by, in respect of', turning the noun into an adverbial phrase meaning 'from reality, actually'.

Analysis. bhūta + -to (ablative suffix); the -to ending often marks the instrumental or ablative sense 'by means of, from, in respect of'; bhūtato thus means 'from what has become, from being/reality' — used adverbially to mean 'actually, truly, in fact'.

Etymology. bhūta is the past participle of √bhū 'to become, be' (Sanskrit bhūta, English be, German bin, Latin fuī 'I was'). The ablative -to extends the spatial sense: 'away from what has become' → 'in terms of what truly is' → 'really, actually'.

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

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