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sudassānaṁ

sudassana

accusative singular masculine of sudassana (adjective)

1. beautiful to behold
2. fair-looking
3. handsome

Built from

• su — prefix · well, good
  Intensifying prefix indicating excellence or ease. Cognate with Greek eu- (eulogy); from the same Indo-European root.
• dassana — stem · sight, seeing
  Derived from √dassati (sees); related to Indo-European *derk- (to see). In compounds, denotes what is perceived or visible.
• ṁ — ending · accusative singular
  Masculine accusative singular ending -aṁ (here -ānaṁ with long ā), marking the noun as the direct object of a transitive verb or preposition.

Analysis. su + dassana: su (well, good) + dassana (seeing, sight; from √dṛś 'to see'). The compound means 'well-seen' or 'visible in a pleasing way', hence beautiful or handsome.

Etymology. su- (well, good; cognate with Greek eu- as in eulogy) + dassana (sight, from Indo-European *derk- 'to see'; cognate with Greek derkomai, English direct). The prefix su- transforms the neutral sense of 'seeing' into the positive 'seen well', i.e. beautiful.

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

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