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dukkhasmāti

dukkha

adj; nominative plural masculine of dukkha as part of the adverbial phrase dukkhasmāti

1. uncomfortable; unpleasant
2. painful
3. discomfort; suffering; unease; unpleasantness; something unsatisfactory; trouble; a bummer; stress
4. pain; physical discomfort

Built from

• dur — prefix · bad, hard
  Prefix meaning bad or difficult. From Indo-European *dus-, cognate with Greek dys- (dysfunction, dystopia) and Sanskrit durá-. Conveys excess or wrongness.
• kha — root · space, hollow
  From √khan 'dig, excavate'. Denotes a space or cavity; combined with dur-, yields the sense of a cramped, confined, or uncomfortable state.
• smāti — ending · contraction (sma + iti)
  sma is a particle (often first-person past or indicative marker); iti marks quoted speech ('it was said'). Together they introduce or emphasize the following notion in doctrinal discourse.

Analysis. dukkha-smāti: dukkha (suffering) + smāti (contraction of sma + iti, 'it was said'). The phrase means 'it was said: suffering' or serves as an emphatic particle introducing the concept of suffering in doctrinal contexts.

Etymology. dukkha from dur- (bad, hard, gone wrong; cognate with Greek dys- as in dysfunction) + kha (from √khan 'dig, excavate', hence 'space, cavity'). Literally 'bad space' or 'discomfort', the word frames suffering as a state of un-ease, spatial congestion. The prefix dur- itself traces to Indo-European *dus- (bad, difficult), seen in Greek dys- and Sanskrit durá-.

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

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