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paṭilabhati

pr 3rd sg of paṭilabhati (verb)

1. obtains; gets; receives; personally experiences
2. gets back; finds again; regains; recovers

Built from

• paṭi — prefix · back, against
  Directional prefix meaning return or counter-motion; works like Greek pros- or Latin contra-, turning the verb's action back on itself or making it reciprocal.
• labh — root · grasp, obtain
  The bare root expressing taking or grasping; cognate with Latin laborare (to toil at work) and English labor, both rooted in the idea of grasping effort.
• a — stem · thematic vowel
  The thematic vowel that marks this as a first-conjugation (a-class) present stem in Pali.
• ti — ending · 3rd singular
  Present indicative ending marking third-person singular ('he/she/it obtains').

Analysis. paṭi- (back, against, in return) + labhati (obtains); the prefix reverses or returns the action of obtaining — hence 'gets back', 'regains', or intensifies it to mean 'obtains in turn'.

Etymology. √labh (to grasp, take, obtain) with cognates in Latin laborare and English labor (originally 'to toil at grasping'); the prefix paṭi- (back, against) preserved here its spatial sense of return or counter-motion, making the word mean both 'obtains back' and 'receives in turn'. Sanskrit paṭilabhate.

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

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