‹ Back to the text

khayadhammatā

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

1. fact of susceptibility to wearing away

Built from

• khaya — root · wearing away, decay
  From √kṣay (Sanskrit kṣaya). The concrete sense of material thinning and depletion becomes the abstract principle of impermanence.
• dhamma — root · nature, property, law
  From √dhṛ (hold, support; Sanskrit dharma). Originally "what is held or supported"; in Pali canon denotes the intrinsic law or nature of a thing, especially in doctrinal formulas.
• -tā — ending · abstract noun suffix
  Nominalized feminine suffix (Latin -tās, -tātis) that converts roots and stems into abstract nouns. Here it nominalized the compound khayadhamma into the abstract fact or state of being subject to decay.

Analysis. khaya (wearing away, dissolution) + dhamma (nature, law, property) + -tā (abstract noun suffix): the nature or law of wearing away; a key doctrinal term for the impermanent character of conditioned things.

Etymology. khaya from √kṣay (Sanskrit kṣaya) meaning wear away, decay; cognate with English "cash" (worn thin, exhausted). The suffix -tā forms abstract nouns from adjectives and nouns (like Latin -tās in qualitās). Dhamma (Sanskrit dharma) originally meant "what is held" (from √dhṛ, English "firm"), here shifted to mean the intrinsic nature or law of things.

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

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