‹ Back to the text

kiṁnidānaṁ

kiṁnidāna

interrogative pronoun (neuter accusative singular), from kim (what) + nidāna (cause, reason); surface form with sandhi contraction and anusvāra

1. on account of what?
2. for what reason?
3. why?

Built from

• kim — root · what
  Interrogative pronoun, PIE *k̑id cognate with Latin quid, English who. Here used to ask about causation.
• nidāna — stem · cause, reason
  From ni- (down, into) + √dā (place, give): the cause as that which is 'laid down' or grounded. Common in doctrinal contexts for the sources of suffering and dependent origination (paṭiccasamuppāda).

Analysis. Compound of kim (what, interrogative) + nidāna (cause, reason, origin). The surface form kiṁnidānaṁ shows contraction and nasalization typical of Pali sandhi when the interrogative pronoun precedes a noun beginning with n.

Etymology. kim is the Pali reflex of PIE *k̑id (what), cognate with Latin quid; nidāna is ni- (down, into) + √dā (to place, give), lit. 'that which is placed/laid down (as a cause)', hence 'root, reason, origin'.

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

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