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kālavādī

masc nom sg of kālavādī (adj); masc nom pl of kālavādī (adj); fem nom sg of kālavādī (adj); nt nom pl of kālavādī (adj); …

1. who speaks at the proper time; lit. speaking time

Built from

• kāla — root · time
  From PIE *kela- 'to drive, move'; Sanskrit kāla. The root sense is motion or passage, applied to the flow of time.
• vā — root · speak
  The verb √vad/√vā 'speak, say'; cognate with Latin vādimōnium (legal speech-act) and possibly English wade (to go forward deliberately).
• -dī — ending · agent
  Agent noun suffix -dī (masculine), making 'one who speaks'; formed from the root and nominalized to denote the speaker as an ongoing quality or character.

Analysis. kāla (time) + vādī (speaker); one who speaks at the right moment, hence wise and prudent in speech.

Etymology. Compound of kāla 'time' (from PIE *kela- 'to drive, move'; Sanskrit kāla) and vādī 'speaker' (from √vad 'speak', related to Latin vādimōnium 'legal pledge', English wade). The compound idiom reflects the canonical virtue of speaking seasonably (kālavacana).

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

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