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ovādappaṭikaro

ovādappaṭikara

masc nom sg of ovādappaṭikara (adj)

1. following orders; acting according to instructions; acting according to advice

Built from

• ovāda — stem · advice, instruction
  From o/ava 'down' (utterance that comes down from authority) + √vac 'to speak'. Related to Latin vox, English voice.
• paṭi — prefix · back, against, in return
  Concrete sense: leaning back, facing back against something. Works like Greek poti/pros 'toward, against'.
• kar — root · do, make
  √kar 'to make, do'. Related to English craft, Latin creare.
• a — ending · adj nom sg masc
  Nominal/adjectival ending marking masculine nominative singular agreement.

Analysis. Compound: ovāda (noun, 'advice, instruction') + paṭikara (adj, 'doing in return, responding to'). The second element paṭi-kara literally 'counter-action, response', so ovādappaṭikara = 'one who responds to/acts upon advice'.

Etymology. ovāda from o (variant of ava, 'down') + vad (√vac 'to speak') = 'utterance, counsel'; paṭikara from paṭi (against, in return) + kara (from √kar 'to do') = 'acting back, responding'. The prefix paṭi preserves the sense of 'returning' or 'reciprocating', turning kara 'doing' into 'doing in response to'.

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

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