‹ Back to the text

ramaṇīyaṁ

ramaṇīya

adjective, accusative singular neuter

1. charming
2. delightful
3. lovely

Built from

• ram — root · delight, enjoy
  The root sense is pleasure and attraction. Appears in ramati 'delights in, enjoys'.
• aṇīya — ending · worthy of, fit for
  A kṛdanta suffix forming adjectives meaning 'worthy of' or 'capable of being'. It marks the nominalized action and fitness.
• ṁ — ending · accusative singular neuter
  The anusvāra marker and inherent neuter ending -a show this as accusative singular neuter form, used attributively or predicatively in neuter contexts.

Analysis. ramaṇīyaṁ is the accusative neuter singular of ramaṇīya, a kṛdanta (derived adjective) meaning 'charming' or 'worth delighting in'. It describes something that invites or deserves enjoyment.

Etymology. From √ram 'to delight, enjoy', which also appears in Sanskrit ramya. The suffix -aṇīya (meaning 'worthy of, fit for') is added to the root to form the adjective. The root is unrelated to Latin rāma; the imagery is of emotional and sensory pleasure.

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

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