‹ Back to the text

niraye

niraya

masc acc pl of niraya (noun); masc loc sg of niraya (noun); nt acc pl of niraya (noun); nt loc sg of niraya (noun)

1. hell; hell realm; lit. no good fortune
2. hell; hell realm; lit. no good fortune

Built from

• nir/nis — prefix · out, away from
  The form nis- appears before vowels as nir-. Spatial negation: out of, away from the good. Cognates: Sanskrit nis-, English nether, German nieder.
• aya — stem · going, destination
  From √i 'to go'. The stem aya denotes motion or a path taken. Cognates: English go, Latin ire, Sanskrit i-; related to modern English aye (a way), archaic 'a-going'.

Analysis. nir- (nis-) 'out of, away from' + aya 'going'; the hell realm is conceived as where beings go (are taken) away from the good.

Etymology. nis + aya (√i 'go'). The prefix nis- 'out, away' (related to Sanskrit nis-, English nether) is joined to aya 'going, destination' (from √i, cognate with English go, Latin ire, Sanskrit i-). The compound's imagery is spatial and moral: niraya is the destination one is driven into by karma, literally 'a going away' — away from fortune, away from the celestial realms.

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

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