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pāṇānaṁ

pāṇa

genitive plural

1. living being
2. animal
3. creature
4. life

Built from

• pāṇa — root · living being
  From *pnə-, breath/life. In the compound pāṇātipāta (killing of living beings), the first precept's violation: deliberate killing of any creature.

Etymology. From Indo-European *pnə-/ *pn̥-, related to Sanskrit prāṇa "breath, life"; English pneumonia, Greek pneuma "spirit, breath". The word originally denoted breath as the sign of life, then extended to any living creature.

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

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