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somanassadomanassānaṁ

somanassa-domanassa

compound noun, genitive plural (somanassadomanassānaṁ); or possibly a dual nominative/accusative ending in -ānaṁ if the form is read as a dual pair

1. joy and sorrow
2. pleasure and pain
3. gladness and sadness

Built from

• su — prefix · well, good
  From PIE *su- (well, good). Marks excellence or ease; here, the well-ordered pleasantness of the mind.
• mano — root · mind
  From PIE *men- 'to think, mind'. Cognates: English mind, Latin mens. The root of emotion-terms in Pali psychology.
• -assa — ending · of, -ness
  Possessive genitive suffix forming abstract nouns: 'the state of the mind', hence 'pleasantness of mind'.
• du — prefix · bad, hard
  From PIE *dus- (bad, ill, hard). Cognates: Greek dys- (dysfunction), Sanskrit duh-. Opposite polarity to su-, marking failure or pain.
• mano — root · mind
  Same root as above; in domanassa, 'the troubled or bad state of the mind'.
• -assa — ending · of, -ness
  Same possessive genitive suffix, marking abstract noun formation.
• -ānaṁ — ending · genitive plural
  Genitive plural inflection: 'of joys and sorrows' or 'belonging to the dual pair of joy and sorrow'.

Analysis. somanassa (su- 'well' + mano 'mind' + -assa possessive suffix, 'well-mindedness', joy) + domanassa (du- 'bad' + mano 'mind' + -assa, 'bad-mindedness', sorrow): the canonical pairing of opposite mental states as the two poles of feeling conditioned by craving.

Etymology. Both are prefix-formations from manas (mind, from PIE *men- 'think'; cognates: English mind, Latin mens). The su- and du- prefixes carry concrete imagery of quality—'well' and 'badly'—applied to the mind's state. In canonical psychology, somanassa and domanassa are the two forms of feeling (vedanā) distinguished from phassa (contact) and the neutral feeling (upekkha).

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

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