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kāmesumicchācārī

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

1. adulterous; who engages in sexual misconduct

Built from

• kāme — stem · in desire, in sensuality
  Locative singular of kāma (desire, lust). Concrete sense of attraction or pulling toward an object of sense.
• su — prefix · well, very, thoroughly
  Intensifying prefix (from PIE *su- 'well, good'); here emphasizes or amplifies the misconduct. Cognate with Greek eu- (eulogy).
• micchā — stem · wrongly, falsely
  Adverbial form meaning 'in a wrong or perverted manner'. From mic- (to go astray) + -chā.
• cāri — stem · going, conduct
  Feminine agent noun from √car (to go, to move), meaning 'one who goes' or 'conduct' (feminine in agreement with the compound, though the speaker may be any gender).

Analysis. kāme (locative of kāma, 'desire, sensuality') + su (intensifying prefix, 'well' or emphasizing excess) + micchā ('wrong, false') + cāri ('going, conduct'), literally 'one who goes wrongly in sensual desire'—a standard formulaic term for sexual transgression in the Vinaya and suttas.

Etymology. A compound formed from kāma (desire, lust; from Proto-Indo-European *kam- 'to desire', cognate with Sanskrit kāma and Latin camērus) + micchā (wrong, false; from mi- + -cchā, related to micchati 'to go astray') + cāra (conduct, from √car 'to go', cognate with Latin currere 'to run'). The su- intensifies or emphasizes the wrongness.

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

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