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pāṇātipātā

pāṇātipāta

masc nom pl of pāṇātipāta (noun); masc instr sg of pāṇātipāta (noun); masc abl sg of pāṇātipāta (noun); masc voc sg of pāṇātipāta (noun); …

1. killing living beings; destruction of life

Built from

• pāṇa — root · life, breath
  Cognate with Sanskrit prāṇa and Indo-European *pneu- (to breathe). Denotes the animate essence.
• ati — prefix · over, beyond, excess
  Marks transgression of a proper limit. Cognates: Greek eti 'still, besides', Latin et. Here it intensifies the wrongfulness.
• pāta — root · striking, killing
  From √pat (to strike, fall). The root captures violent action or destruction.

Analysis. pāṇa (living being) + ati-pāta (killing, striking beyond the mark); lit. 'excessive striking of life.' The prefix ati- intensifies the transgression: pāta (striking) becomes atipāta (killing that goes too far). This compound expresses the first precept (pāṇātipātā veramaṇī): abstaining from killing.

Etymology. pāṇa (life, breath, living being) is cognate with Sanskrit prāṇa and the Indo-European root *pneu- (breathe: English pneumonia, Latin pneuma). atipāta combines ati- (over, beyond, excess; Greek eti 'still, besides') with √pat (strike, fall; Sanskrit pat-). The notion of 'striking beyond the mark' — killing — encodes the moral severity: taking life transgresses the boundary.

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

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