‹ Back to the text

kāmesumicchācāro

kāmesumicchācāra

masc nom sg of kāmesumicchācāra (noun)

1. sexual misconduct; wrong behaviour in sexual matters

Built from

• kāmesu — stem · in sexual matters
  Locative plural of kāma 'desire, sexuality'. This sets the domain of the misconduct.
• micchā — prefix · wrongly, badly
  From mic- + ā; the concrete image is 'mixed the wrong way'. The adverb modifies cāra to mean 'wrong conduct'.
• cāra — root · conduct, walking
  From √car 'to walk, move, conduct oneself'. The root carries the sense of 'way of life' or 'behaviour', cognate with English 'car' and Latin currere.

Analysis. kāmesu + micchā + cāra: 'in sexual matters, wrong conduct'. kāmesu is the locative plural of kāma 'desire, sexuality'; micchā is the adverb 'wrongly, incorrectly'; cāra derives from √car 'walk, conduct'. The compound forms one of the five precepts (pañcasīla), the third of which forbids this misconduct.

Etymology. Compound of kāma (Sanskrit kāma, from Indo-European *kāmh- 'to desire'; cognate with English 'charm' in its etymological sense of 'power to attract'), micchā (from mic- 'mixed wrongly' + ā, the prefixed preposition; akin to Latin miscēre 'to mix'), and cāra (from √car 'to walk, move', cognate with English 'car' and Latin currere 'to run'). The spatial sense of micchā—'mixed the wrong way'—carries through to 'wrong, incorrect'.

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

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