‹ Back to the text

catubbhi

catu

masc instr pl of catu (card); fem instr pl of catu (card); nt instr pl of catu (card)

1. catu (card): four (4)
2. catubbhi (card): with four; by four

Built from

• cat — root · four
  An ancient numeral root going back to Indo-European *kʷetu̯ăr-, found across Indo-European languages: Latin quattuor, Greek téttares, English four. The root originally denoted a concrete division into quarters.
• u — stem · stem marker
  The vowel u marks this as the oblique stem of the numeral; the nominative singular is catū (four things).
• bbhi — ending · instrumental plural
  The instrumental plural ending -bbhi (with gemination from -bhir) expresses the instrumental case ('with', 'by', 'through') in the plural.

Etymology. From Indo-European *kʷetu̯ăr-, the same root underlying Sanskrit catvāri, Latin quattuor, Greek téttares, and English four. The Pali form catu is the reduced stem used in compounds and oblique cases.

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

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