‹ Back to the text

etadavocuṁ

etadavoca

3rd person plural aorist active indicative of etadavocati (contraction of eta + avoca)

1. they said this
2. they spoke thus

Built from

• eta — root · this
  Demonstrative pronoun, neuter accusative singular; signals what is about to be reported.
• ava — prefix · down, out
  Downward motion and vocalization: speech flows out. Cognate with Latin au- (aufero 'carry off').
• voca — root · speak
  From vac- 'voice, speak'; related to Latin vox, English voice.
• ṁ — ending · 3rd plural aorist
  Aorist marker -u- + 3rd plural -ṁ, marking perfective past action of the group collectively.

Analysis. etad (neuter accusative singular of eta, 'this') + avoca (3rd person plural aorist of vadati, 'speak'). The compound contracts to etadavoca-, expressing the reported speech formula common in the suttas.

Etymology. eta < eso 'this' (from IE *e- 'this', cognate with Latin is); avoca < ava ('down', away) + vac ('speak'), literally 'spoke out'. The downward prefix suggests utterance coming out and down, hence vocalization.

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

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