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sikkhāya

sikkhā

fem instr sg of sikkhā (noun); fem dat sg of sikkhā (noun); fem abl sg of sikkhā (noun); fem gen sg of sikkhā (noun); …

1. art; science
2. training; practice (in)
3. precept; training rule

Built from

• sikh — root · sharpen, learn
  The root conveys the sense of honing, refining, and making pointed or keen—hence training as the sharpening of faculty and skill.
• ā — ending · feminine nominative
  The suffix -ā marks the feminine noun stem in Pali, forming the nominative singular and providing a gender marker for the abstract noun denoting the quality of training itself.

Etymology. From √sikh 'to sharpen, to learn' (related to Sanskrit śikṣ-). The concrete image is of sharpening or honing a skill, as one sharpens a tool. No secure Indo-European cognate, though the root family may relate to Latin secare 'to cut' through the imagery of incision and refinement. In the canon, sikkhā denotes the threefold training (tisso sikkhā): moral training (sīla), mental training (samādhi), and wisdom training (paññā).

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

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