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pariyāyo

pariyāya

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

1. way; means; method; lit. going around
2. discourse; instruction; teaching; lit. going around
3. turn; detour; roundabout way; lit. going around
4. way; nature; habit; property; quality; lit. going around
5. non-literal; figurative; metaphorical; lit. going around
6. (gram) metaphor
7. order; succession; course; sequence; lit. going around
8. way of saying; method of presentation; figure of speech; lit. going around
9. …

Built from

• pari — prefix · around, all the way round
  Spatial prefix marking completeness and encompassing motion; Greek peri- in perimeter. Here it suggests that a pariyāya is a comprehensive or circuitous route of understanding.
• yāya — stem · going
  From √yā 'go'. The stem carries the sense of movement or progression, making pariyāya a 'going-around', i.e. an indirect or roundabout means of presentation.

Analysis. pari + yāya: from pari- (around, all the way round — completeness) and √yā (go). Literally 'going around', hence a way or method that encompasses all aspects, a complete circuit of meaning; used especially for indirect, circuitous modes of teaching and expression in contrast to direct statement.

Etymology. From pari- (around, completeness; cognates: Greek peri- in perimeter, period) + √yā (go; cognate: English way, from Proto-Germanic *wegaz, ultimately from the same Indo-European root *wegʰ- that yielded Sanskrit vāha- 'carrying' and Latin vehere 'carry'). The prefix preserves its spatial sense of 'going all the way around' within the abstract sense of a method or manner of presenting something.

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

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