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paṇḍitavādo

paṇḍitavāda

masc nom sg of paṇḍitavāda (noun)

1. skilful speaker; intelligent orator; (comm) believing one is wise

Built from

• paṇ — root · full, complete
  Related to Sanskrit pūrṇa and Latin plēnus (full); the sense of completeness underlies 'accomplished' or 'full of learning'.
• ḍita — ending · past participle
  The -ita suffix marks a completed state, so paṇḍita = 'one who has proceeded to fullness', hence wise and learned.
• vāda — root · speech, utterance
  From √vad (to speak); cognates with English word, Latin vōx (voice), and Sanskrit vādita (spoken). The root captures the idea of utterance as a vehicle for the speaker's character.

Analysis. paṇḍita (wise, learned) + vāda (speech, doctrine); a compound denoting one who speaks as a wise person, or whose speech bears the mark of learning.

Etymology. paṇḍita derives from the root √pad (Sanskrit padyate, to go, proceed; English foot, pace) with the suffix -ita, originally meaning 'proceeded, advanced' and so 'accomplished, learned'. vāda from √vad (to speak; English word, Latin vōx, Greek ὀπός) with suffix -a. The compound captures the Pali idiom of identifying a person by their characteristic utterance.

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

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