‹ Back to the text

parisuddhaṁ

parisuddhā

neuter singular nominative (or accusative) of the adjective parisuddhā, possibly from a past participle used as adjective; the form parisuddhaṁ is a contracted or sandhi variant.

1. entirely pure
2. completely cleansed
3. thoroughly purified

Built from

• pari- — prefix · around, completely
  Marks completeness and thoroughness; spatial sense of 'all the way round' becomes abstract totality.
• suddh- — root · purify, cleanse
  Noun from √suldh-, referring to the state of being clean or pure, with no contaminants.
• -ā — ending · feminine adjective
  Forms feminine adjectives; here combined with neuter singular forms in -aṁ through agreement with neuter nouns.

Analysis. pari- (around, all the way round, completeness) + suddhā (pure, clean, from √suddh- to purify). The prefix pari- intensifies the meaning of suddhā into 'complete purity on all sides', used in doctrinal contexts to describe purification of the mind or conduct.

Etymology. pari- < PIE *per- (forward, around); suddhā from √suldh- (to cleanse), related to Sanskrit śuddha. The root belongs to the family of √sudh-, and pari- adds the sense of thoroughness and completeness—purity reached on every side.

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

Lite mode — plain HTML for e-readers and old browsers. Full version