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paccayo

paccaya

masc nom sg of paccaya (noun); masc nom sg of paccaya (adj)

1. support; requisite; necessity
2. cause; reason; supporting condition; requirement (for)
3. (gram) affix; suffix; verbal ending; lit. dependent
4. dependent (on); reliant (on); based (on); supported (by); founded (on)
5. name of an arahant monk; lit. dependent

Built from

• paṭi — prefix · back, against
  The spatial sense of leaning back or counter-turning; in paccaya it evokes a condition that leans back to support what follows.
• aya — stem · going, coming
  From √i (go, come); here used nominally as the action of coming or approaching, which combined with paṭi- yields the notion of return and dependence.

Analysis. paṭi + aya; literally "coming back" or "leaning-back", used in dependent origination (paṭiccasamuppāda) to denote a condition that leans back upon or supports an effect.

Etymology. paṭi- (back, against, in return) + aya (from √i "go, come"), originally the concrete image of something leaning back or coming back in response; contrast with English "pathos" (suffering that comes back upon one). The abstract sense "condition" arises from the notion of a preceding factor that returns as a supporting condition.

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

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