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cittassa

citta

nt dat sg of citta (noun); nt gen sg of citta (noun); masc dat sg of citta (adj); nt dat sg of citta (adj); …

1. mind; heart
2. thought; intention; idea; lit. mind
3. decorated; beautiful; adorned
4. varied; different; diverse
5. painting; picture; artwork; illusion
6. name of a lay-disciple; great disciple of the Buddha; foremost layman in giving Dhamma talks; Citta Macchikāsaṇḍika
7. name of a monk; Citta Hatthisāriputta
8. name of a lunar month; March-April
9. …

Built from

• cit — root · perceive; gather
  From PIE *kei- or *keit- 'to notice, gather'; the root sense is 'what comes together' — percepts gathering in awareness, or ornaments gathered in one place. No clear European cognate survives in standard English; the Sanskrit and Pali root is ancient.
• ta — ending · past participle agent
  Masculine nominative or neuter nominative singular of the past participle (kta-suffix), making citta 'that which is/was perceived or gathered' — used nominally as 'mind' or adjectivally as 'decorated'.

Etymology. From √cit 'to perceive, be aware', cognate with Sanskrit cit-, Greek kith- (in rare kithara 'lyre', originally 'stringed thing made audible'), and English 'kit' (originally 'things packed together'). The root sense is 'to gather, collect' — hence both 'mind' (where perceptions gather) and 'decorated' (things collected ornamentally). In the canon, citta denotes the bare faculty of awareness that is the seat of mental formations (saṅkhārā) and the root of suffering: 'cittassa ānantariyatā' (mind's immediacy), the constant stream of consciousness through saṁsāra.

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

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