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kathāsallāpo

kathāsallāpa

masc nom sg of kathāsallāpa (noun)

1. talk; conversation; discussion

Built from

• kathā — root · speech, topic
  From √kath- (to narrate, speak), related to Greek katechein. Concrete sense: pouring words into someone's ears.
• sallāpa — stem · talk, dialogue
  From sal- (to move, shake, speak) + -āpa (action suffix). The root sal- carries the sense of motion and agitation, here applied to animated speech going back and forth.

Analysis. kathā (speech, topic) + sallāpa (talk, dialogue); literally 'speech-talk', conversation or discussion. The second element sallāpa derives from sal- (to move, speak) + -āpa (suffix forming action nouns), giving the compound an intensive sense of 'back-and-forth speaking'.

Etymology. kathā from √kath- (to speak, narrate; cognate with Greek katechein 'to teach orally', literally 'to pour down into'); sallāpa from sal- (to move, shake, also to speak in motion or tumult) + suffix -āpa. The compound fuses two speaking roots to emphasize dialogue rather than one-way speech, common in the Pali canon for saṁyutta-nikāya discussions and suttas.

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

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