‹ Back to the text

dukkaraṁ

dukkara

accusative singular neuter of dukkara (adjective)

1. hard to do, difficult
2. requiring effort
3. toilsome

Built from

• du(r)- — prefix · hard, bad
  Prefix meaning excess or wrongness; cognate with Greek dys-. Here it marks difficulty or effort required.
• kara — stem · making, doing
  From √kr 'to make, do'; cognate with English craft, Latin creare. The stem noun form of the root.
• -ṁ — ending · accusative singular
  Neuter accusative singular ending; marks the object or complement in this context.

Analysis. du(r)- (bad, hard) + kara (making, doing, from √kr). Literally 'hard-making' or 'badly done'.

Etymology. du(r)- is cognate with Greek dys- (dysfunction). The root √kr (to make, do) is cognate with English craft, create, Latin creare. The prefix du(r)- expresses excess or wrongness, here manifesting as difficulty or hardship.

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

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