‹ Back to the text

caturassā

caturassa

masc nom pl of caturassa (noun); masc instr sg of caturassa (noun); masc abl sg of caturassa (noun); masc voc sg of caturassa (noun); …

1. square; rectangle; lit. four corners
2. four-sided; square; rectangular
3. (sutta) which discusses the qualities of the bad cowherd and the bad monk, the good cowherd and the good monk; lit. four corners

Built from

• catu- — root · four
  From PIE *kʷetwer-; compare Latin quattuor, Greek tettares, English four. Denotes number in all Indic languages.
• rassa — root · corner; edge
  Related to Sanskrit rasana. The concrete image is the sharp meeting-point of two sides. Likely from a root meaning "scrape" or "sharpen", as a corner is where two surfaces meet at an edge.

Analysis. catu- (four) + -rassa (corner). A bahuvrihi compound: "having four corners"; used as an adjective substantivized into a noun.

Etymology. catu- derives from PIE *kʷetwer- "four" (Sanskrit catvār-, Latin quattuor, Greek tettares, English four). The element -rassa is cognate with Sanskrit rasana "edge, corner" and possibly Greek errassa (in the sense of edge or border), from a root meaning "scrape" or "edge"; the image is of the corner as a sharp edge where sides meet.

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

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