‹ Back to the text

bhayadassāvino

bhayadassāvī

masc nom pl of bhayadassāvī (adj); masc acc pl of bhayadassāvī (adj); masc dat sg of bhayadassāvī (adj); nt dat sg of bhayadassāvī (adj); …

1. seeing the danger (of); aware of the danger (in)

Built from

• bhaya — root · fear, danger
  The concrete sense is any fear-arousing obstacle or threat. Related to English 'baffles' and Germanic words for constraint or bewilderment.
• dassa — stem · seeing, viewing
  Derived from the root √dassati (shows, displays), cognate with Sanskrit √dṛś (to see, look); the stem dassa- marks the participle or agent base.
• āvī — ending · one who (agent noun)
  The suffix -āvī creates agent nouns (like -er in English), marking one who habitually or characteristically does the action. Here it marks 'one who sees' as a habitually perceptive person.

Analysis. bhayadassāvī compounds two elements: bhaya (fear, danger) + dassāvī (one who sees, seeing). The word literally means 'one who sees danger', i.e., one with clear awareness of danger in a situation or practice.

Etymology. Composed of bhaya (fear, danger; cognate with English 'baffles', originally 'bewilders') and dassāvī, a derived agent noun from dassati (shows, sees), itself from the root √dṛś (Sanskrit) cognate with English 'dare' and Latin 'dare' in the sense of facing something directly. The ending -āvī marks a noun of agency or characteristic quality.

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

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