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paribhāsanti

paribhāsati

pr 3rd pl of paribhāsati (verb)

1. abuses; insults; reviles; badmouths; lit. speaks all around

Built from

• pari — prefix · around, all the way round
  Conveys completeness and encompassing scope. Cognate with Greek peri- (perimeter). Here the 'all-around' speaking creates the sense of comprehensive disparagement.
• bhāsati — stem · speaks
  3rd person singular present stem of √bhās 'to speak, utter'. The root appears in Sanskrit bhāṣate and is distantly related to PIE *bha- 'to speak'.
• anti — ending · 3rd plural
  Present indicative 3rd person plural ending, marking the verb as applying to multiple subjects in present time.

Analysis. pari- (around, all the way round) + bhāsati (speaks); lit. 'speaks all around' = speaks against on all sides, maligns.

Etymology. √bhās 'to speak' (from PIE *bha- 'to speak, say'; cognate with English 'base' in 'base speech', Greek phasis 'utterance'). The prefix pari- 'around, all the way round' adds the sense of completeness and malevolence: speaking all around someone is to speak ill of them comprehensively.

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

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