‹ Back to the text

sokadhammaṁyeva

soka-dhamma

masculine accusative singular (sokadhammaṁ) with enclitic -eva 'precisely', appearing in the phrase 'grief and grief's nature' or 'suffering things themselves'

1. grief, mourning, sorrow
2. the nature or characteristic of grief
3. suffering as a natural condition

Built from

• soka — root · grief, sorrow
  From a root sense of burning or scorching; the emotional heat of mourning. Cognate with Sanskrit śoca.
• dhamma — root · nature, characteristic, thing, teaching
  From dhē- 'to place, establish' (cognates: English do, Latin facere). Denotes both natural law and the Buddha's teachings that reveal it.
• -ṁ — ending · accusative singular
  Marks the object case; -eva appended for emphasis ('precisely, just these').
• -eva — ending · precisely, just
  Enclitic particle emphasizing that the subject is grief-things themselves, without qualification or exception.

Analysis. soka (grief, sorrow) + dhamma (nature, characteristic, thing, or dhamma as 'teachings' in doctrinal contexts). The compound means 'grief-things' or 'the sorrowful nature of things', often used to denote the experiential reality of dukkha (suffering) as inherent to conditioned existence. The enclitic -eva emphasizes 'precisely' or 'just these very things'.

Etymology. Soka derives from a root sense of 'burn' or 'scorch' (related to Sanskrit śoca, cognate with Latin succendere 'to kindle'). Dhamma from Indo-European dhē- 'to place, set, establish' (cognates: English do, Latin facere), here meaning both natural law and the teachings that reveal it. The pairing sokadhammaṁ reflects the Pali doctrinal use of dhamma to mean both the transient characteristics of phenomena and the Buddha's teachings about them.

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

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