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bhūtavādī

masc nom sg of bhūtavādī (adj); masc nom pl of bhūtavādī (adj); fem nom sg of bhūtavādī (adj); nt nom pl of bhūtavādī (adj); …

1. who speaks what is true; lit. speaking become

Built from

• bhūta — stem · what is real
  Past participle of bhavati 'becomes'; the concrete sense is 'what has come to be', hence 'what is actual or true'. Cognate with English 'be' and German 'Bett'.
• vād — root · speak
  The root √vad 'to speak' underlies vāda 'speech' and vādī 'speaker'. Cognate with Latin vātem 'seer' and Sanskrit vad.
• ī — ending · agent suffix
  The suffix -ī marks an agent noun or one habitually characterized by the preceding quality; here it makes vād 'speech' into vādī 'speaker'.

Analysis. bhūta (past participle of bhavati, 'become', hence 'what has become, what is real') + vādī (one who speaks, from vāda 'speech'). Literally 'speaking-the-real' or 'speaker of what is true'.

Etymology. bhūta is the past participle of bhavati ('become'), from the root √bhū, cognate with English 'be' and Sanskrit bhūta. vāda derives from √vad 'to speak', cognate with Latin vātem 'seer, prophet' and Sanskrit vad. The compound expresses a cardinal virtue in Buddhist ethics: the person who speaks only what is true, factual, and has come into being (bhūta).

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

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