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dhammassavanāyāti

dhammassavana

nt; locative singular with iti (quotative particle)

1. hearing the teaching; hearing a sermon; listening to the Dhamma

Built from

• dhamma — root · teaching, law
  From √dhṛ 'to hold, bear': that which holds firm, the established teaching. Cognates: English firm, Latin firmus.
• ssa — ending · genitive
  Genitive singular -ssa marks the possessor or domain: 'of the hearing/hearing of'.
• vana — stem · hearing, listening
  Derived from √śru 'to hear' (cognates: English hear, German hören, Sanskrit śruti). The -ana suffix nominalizes: 'the action of hearing'.
• āya — ending · locative
  Locative singular -āya marks location or sphere: 'in/at the hearing', 'upon/at the occasion of'.
• iti — prefix · thus, quotative
  Ancient quotative particle and demonstrative (cognates: Latin ita 'thus', English it). Marks the boundary of reported speech or a quoted phrase.

Analysis. dhammassavanāyāti = dhammassavanāya + iti. The locative dhammassavanāya ('in/at the hearing of dhamma') governs iti, a quotative particle meaning 'thus' or 'saying that', often marking reported speech or a clause boundary: 'at the hearing of dhamma, thus...' or 'saying at the hearing of dhamma'.

Etymology. Compound: dhamma (√dhṛ 'to hold, bear', cognate English firm, Latin firmus; 'that which is held', the teaching) + savana (√śru 'to hear', cognate English hear, German hören, Sanskrit śruti 'hearing'; -ana nominalizing suffix). Iti is an ancient quotative particle (cognate Latin ita 'thus', English it, German es), originally a demonstrative pronoun.

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

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