jighacchitānaṁ

jighacchati

genitive plural masculine of the past participle jighacchita, nominalized; resolves to standard jighattha- (hungry, desiring food); the surface form appears in some mss. as irregular feminine -tānaṁ ending

of the hungry
of those desiring food
of those experiencing craving

Built from

ji- — prefix · reduplication
Intensive reduplication of the initial syllable (ji from ghas) to mark repeated or intense action; here, the persistent, gnawing quality of hunger.
ghas — root · eat, devour
Root meaning to consume food; cognate with Sanskrit ghas-, English 'ghastly' (originally fearful), and the Indo-European sense of devouring or consuming.
ita — ending · past participle
Verbal adjective forming a past participle; here, marks the state of being hungry or desiring food.
tānaṁ — ending · genitive plural
Genitive plural masculine (or nominalized feminine); marks possession or attribution in the plural.

Analysis. jighacchita is the past participle of jighattha (desiring, craving food); -tānaṁ is the genitive plural masculine ending, agreeing with an elided masculine noun (likely bhikkhu or jantu).

Etymology. jighattha derives from the intensive reduplication of √ghas (to eat, devour), yielding the sense 'desiring food, hungry'. The root √ghas is cognate with Sanskrit ghas- and related to English 'ghastly' and German 'Gast' (guest, originally one who eats); the intensive reduplication (ji-ghas-) conveys the urgency and repetition of craving.

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

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