‹ Back to the text

matthakacchinno

matthakacchinna

masc nom sg of matthakacchinna (adj)

1. with crown cut off; with head removed

Built from

• mattha — root · head
  From √math 'to churn, agitate'; the head as that which is tossed or moved. Related to Sanskrit mantha and perhaps Greek mastazein 'to knead'.
• kacchinna — stem · cut
  Past participle of √kach 'to cut'; related to Sanskrit kṛntati 'cuts'. The -inna ending marks the past participle in the compound.

Analysis. mattha (head) + kacchinna (cut, past participle of kacchati), a dvandva or descriptive compound: 'head-cut', one whose head is cut off.

Etymology. mattha from √math 'to churn, agitate' (cognate with Sanskrit mantha, Greek mastazein 'to knead'); kacchinna from √kach 'to cut' (related to Sanskrit kṛntati 'cuts', Latin certus perhaps through a different root). The compound forms an adjective describing physical mutilation, used in the canon to denote extreme violence or defeat.

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

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