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manosamphasso

manosamphassa

masc nom sg of manosamphassa (noun)

1. contact with the mind; mental impression; mental experience

Built from

• mano — stem · mind
  Nominative singular of manas. Indo-European *men- 'to think', cognate with English 'mind', Latin 'mens'. Denotes the knowing faculty.
• sam — prefix · together, with
  Brings parts into one; here, the bringing together of knower and known. Works like Latin con-.
• pha — root · touch, strike
  From √spṛś 'to touch'. The concrete image of contact, the impression made when one thing meets another.
• ssa — ending · nominalizer, masculine
  Derives an abstract noun (phassa, 'contact') and marks masculine nominative singular agreement with mano in the compound.

Analysis. mano + samphassa: 'mind' (nominative of manas) + 'contact' (saṁ + √spṛś), a compound denoting the touching or impression of the mind; the contact that arises between sense-faculty and sense-object through the agency of mind.

Etymology. From manas 'mind' (Indo-European *men- 'to think', cognate with English 'mind', Greek menos 'spirit') + samphassa from sam- 'together' + phassa (√spṛś 'to touch'), literally 'contact brought together'. In the canon, manosamphassa is the mental analog of phassa (contact via eye, ear, etc.), the third link in the chain of dependent arising when mind meets object.

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

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