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piṇḍapātiko

piṇḍapātika

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

1. who collects alms-food (by walking from house to house)
2. who lives on alms-food; beggar

Built from

• piṇḍa — root · alms, lump
  From √piṇḍ (to gather, knead). A ball of rice or congee offered to monks; the concrete image of gathered grain shaped by hand.
• pāta — stem · descent, falling
  From √pat (to fall, descend); cognate with English fall, Latin patere. The concrete image of gift-giving as a falling or descent of grace from donor to recipient.
• ika — ending · agent, one who
  Agentive suffix forming nomina agentis; marks the person as the subject of the action piṇḍapāta (collecting alms by descent).

Analysis. piṇḍa + pāta + ika: piṇḍa (alms-food, a lump or ball of rice) + pāta (falling, descent; here 'almgiving') + ika (agent suffix). The compound denotes one engaged in the practice of collecting alms by descent from house to house, or the descent of gifts into one's bowl.

Etymology. piṇḍa is from √piṇḍ (to gather, form into a lump), related to Sanskrit piṇḍa; pāta is from √pat (to fall, descend), cognate with English 'fall' and Sanskrit pāta. The prefix sense of 'descent' in pāta carries the imagery of grace falling downward into the mendicant's hands.

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

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