‹ Back to the text

pisuṇavācāpaccayā

ind. (ablative feminine singular of the locative absolute construction pisuṇavācāpaccaya-)

1. dependent on divisive speech; due to separating others by speech

Built from

• pisuṇa — root · divisive, splitting
  From √piṃs "to split, pierce"; the concrete image of physical separation metaphorically extends to sowing discord and division among people.
• vācā — stem · speech
  Nominative feminine stem of vāc, from √vac "to speak"; cognate with Latin vox and English voice.
• paccaya — stem · condition, reason, cause
  From √pac "to bind, join"; the concrete sense of binding becomes the abstract sense of that which holds together or causes an outcome.
• ā — ending · ablative marker
  Ablative feminine singular -ā marking the causal ground or instrumental condition in an ablative absolute construction.
• paccayā — ending · ablative feminine singular
  The full ablative feminine singular ending combines the stem paccaya with -ā, marking it as the reason or cause from which the action or state proceeds.

Analysis. pisuṇa-vācā-paccayā: pisuṇa (divisive, from √piṃs "split, separate") + vācā (speech, from √vac "speak") + paccayā (ablative of paccaya "condition, reason", from pac "to bind, connect"). The compound treats pisuṇavācā (divisive speech) as the condition or causal ground; the ablative marks it as an instrumental cause.

Etymology. pisuṇa: from √piṃs (to split, separate, pierce), cognate with Latin findere (to split) and Sanskrit piṃsati; the sense moved from physical splitting to sowing discord. vācā: from √vac (to speak), cognate with Latin vox (voice) and English voice. paccaya: from √pac (to bind, connect, join), related to Sanskrit paśyati; the underlying image is "that which binds or holds together as a reason."

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

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