‹ Back to the text

buddho

buddha

masc nom sg of buddha (noun); masc nom sg of buddha (pp)

1. Buddha; Awakened One
2. awakened; woke up; understood

Built from

• budh — root · awaken, understand
  The root means to wake from sleep and metaphorically to awaken to wisdom and reality. It survives in Sanskrit bodhi 'awakening' and bodhi-sattva 'awakening-being'.
• a — ending · past participle
  The suffix -a (a zero-grade or simple-a ending) marks the past participle in Pali, converting the root into an adjective or agent noun describing one who has awakened.

Etymology. From √budh 'to wake, to understand, to awaken to' (Sanskrit bodh-, cognate with English abide via proto-Germanic *beudan 'to dwell, to stay awake'). The past participle buddha literally means 'awakened' or 'one who has awakened'; in Buddhist usage, the term denotes supreme enlightenment as the culmination of insight into the nature of reality.

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

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