‹ Back to the text

lokakkhāyikaṁ

lokakkhāyika

accusative singular neuter of lokakkhāyika (adjective)

1. depicting the world
2. worldly narrative
3. describing worldly affairs

Built from

• loka — root · world
  From Indo-European *leuk- 'light, brightness'; the world as the luminous, cleared space. Compare Sanskrit loka, Greek leukós.
• kkhāyika — stem · depicting
  Derived from √khyā 'to tell, show, declare'. The suffix -ika forms an adjective meaning 'characterized by' or 'tending to'; kkhāyika thus means 'tending to tell or depict'.

Analysis. loka (world) + kkhāyika (depicting, from √khyā 'to tell, depict') — a compound adjective meaning 'depicting the world' or 'concerned with worldly narratives'; used in the canon to classify certain texts or teachings as focused on mundane rather than transcendent matters.

Etymology. loka is the Indo-European word for 'space, clearing' (Sanskrit loka, Greek leukós 'white, bright, clear space'); kkhāyika derives from √khyā 'to tell, declare', akin to Latin quīēs and Sanskrit khyāti. The compound describes narratives that illuminate (khyā) the world (loka).

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

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