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kālaṅkiriyā

fem nom sg of kālaṅkiriyā (noun); fem nom pl of kālaṅkiriyā (noun); fem acc pl of kālaṅkiriyā (noun); fem instr sg of kālaṅkiriyā (noun); …

1. death; lit. doing time

Built from

• kāla — root · time, hour
  From PIE *kel- 'to drive, impel'; the sense shifts from temporal flow to the appointed moment when time runs out. Related to Sanskrit kāla and Greek kélēs 'swift'.
• kiriyā — stem · action, deed
  Feminine action noun from kara 'to do'; the -iyā suffix (cognate with Latin -ia) nominalizes the verbal root. Here it means 'the doing' or 'work' that time performs.

Analysis. kāla (time, appointed hour) + kiriyā (action, deed); literally 'the action of time' or 'time's work', a compound denoting death as the action that time performs on all conditioned beings.

Etymology. kāla is from Proto-Indo-European *kel- 'to drive, impel, go', appearing in Sanskrit kāla, Greek κέλης (kelēs) 'swift', Latin celer 'swift'; kiriyā derives from kara 'to do', cognate with Latin gerere (through the -iyā feminine action noun suffix). The compound semantically traces how time (as inexorable process) enacts death.

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

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