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okkanti

fem nom sg of okkanti (noun); fem voc sg of okkanti (noun)

1. entry; descent; lit. going down
2. conception; coming down (into a womb); lit. going down

Built from

• o — prefix · down
  Sandhi form of ava- 'down, off, downward'; the spatial sense (literal descent) underlies the doctrinal sense of descent into rebirth.
• kk — root · go, move
  Geminated form of kam; cognate with Sanskrit gam and English come. Expresses motion or passage.
• anti — ending · feminine abstract noun
  The -anti suffix (from √am 'go') forms feminine action nouns. Here it nominates the action of descent, making okkanti 'the going-down' or 'descent'.

Analysis. o + kanti, from ava + √kam (go): ava 'down, downward' + kam 'go' → avakkanti 'going down', whence okkanti by sandhi (av- becomes o- before k). In the suttas, avakkanti refers to the descent of consciousness into the womb at conception.

Etymology. From ava 'down' (cognate English off, Latin au-) + √kam 'go, move' (cognate Sanskrit gam, English come, Latin venire). The prefix ava- gives the image of downward motion; in the context of rebirth, okkanti literally means 'going down' and denotes the entry of the gandhabba into the womb at conception.

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

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