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nevassa

sandhi contraction: na + eva + assa

1. not even for him; not even his; neither his
2. would not even be

Built from

• na — root · not
  Plain negation without prefix. Cognates: English no, Latin ne.
• eva — root · even, just
  Emphatic particle intensifying negation. Sanskrit eva; no certain European cognate.
• assa — ending · would be (optative)
  3rd person singular optative of atthi 'is/exists'. Optative marks conditional or potential mood. Cognates: English is, Latin est, Greek esti.

Analysis. na (negation) + eva (emphatic particle, 'even') + assa (optative of atthi, 'would be'). The three words fuse in sandhi: na + eva → neve, then neve + assa → nevassa. Doctrinal use: common in denying even the possibility of a state or attainment.

Etymology. na is the simple negation (cognate with English 'no', Latin ne); eva is an emphatic particle meaning 'even' or 'just' (akin to Sanskrit eva); assa is the optative of atthi 'to be' (cognate with English 'is', Latin est, Greek esti).

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

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