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duppaññattaṁ

duppaññatta

accusative singular neuter of duppaññatta (adjective); or nominative/accusative singular neuter in substantival use

1. badly constructed
2. poorly formulated
3. wrongly designated

Built from

• du — prefix · bad, wrongly
  Prefix expressing deficiency or excess gone wrong. Cognate with Greek dys- (dysfunction). Carries concrete sense of 'gone bad' into abstract domains.
• ppaññatta — stem · formulated, designated
  Past participle of paññapeti (causative of pañnāti, 'to know'), literally 'caused to be known', hence 'formulated' or 'designated'. The root pañ- relates to understanding and construction of concepts.

Analysis. du-ppaññatta: du (bad, wrongly) + paññatta (pp. of paññapeti, 'formulated, designated, constructed'). The prefix du- (from dussamā, 'bad') negates or perverts the sense of 'well-formulated'.

Etymology. From du- (bad; Greek dys-, English dysfunction) + paññapeti (to formulate, construct, designate), related to √prajñā (Sanskrit prajñā 'wisdom', but here used in the sense 'formulation'). The compound inverts the sense of 'well-made' into 'badly made', typical of du- compounds which express deficiency or malformation.

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

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