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sikkhāpadesūti

sikkhāpada

nominative plural + iti (quotation marker)

1. precept; instruction; training rule

Built from

• sikkhā — root · training, learning
  From √śikṣ 'learn, be trained'. The concrete image is of being guided or led along a path of instruction.
• pada — root · step, foot, ground
  From √pad 'go, fall, step'. Cognate with English foot, Latin pes, Greek pous; the image is literal: a footstep on the path.
• e — ending · nominative plural
  The -e ending marks the nominative plural in Pali neuter nouns.
• sū — prefix · well, good; thus
  From su- (well, good) used here in the sense 'thus' or 'so-called', introducing what follows as a category or designation.
• ti — ending · quotation/marking particle
  The particle iti marks reported speech or a term being cited; here it frames the precepts as a named class.

Analysis. sikkhāpade (nominative plural of sikkhāpada) + sūti (contraction of su + iti, 'thus' / 'so-called'); the phrase marks training rules as a class: 'the precepts, so to speak' or 'the so-called precepts'.

Etymology. sikkhāpada is sikkhā (training, learning; from √śikṣ, 'learn, be trained'; no common European cognate, but Sanskrit śikṣati 'learns') + pada (foot, step, topic, ground; from √pad 'go, fall'; cognate with English foot, Latin pes, Greek pous). Literally 'training-step' or 'step of training', the metaphor is of walking the path of discipline — each precept a footstep.

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

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