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sukhadukkhaṁ

sukhadukkha

accusative singular neuter of the compound sukhadukkha (pleasure and pain)

1. pleasure and pain
2. happiness and suffering
3. comfort and discomfort

Built from

• su- — prefix · well, good
  Spatial sense of smoothness and ease; related to Greek eu- and English sweet. Marks the positive pole of sensory experience.
• kha — root · be at ease, space
  The root underlying both sukha and dukkha; the concrete image is of open, unobstructed space versus cramped confinement.
• du- — prefix · bad, hard, difficult
  Spatial sense of difficulty and wrongness, related to Greek dys-. Marks the negative pole, with the same root inverted by inversion of the prefix.
• kha — root · be at ease, space
  Repeated root in the second member; dukkha is sukha with the opposite prefix, creating a natural antithesis.

Analysis. sukha (pleasure, ease) + dukkha (pain, suffering); a compound denoting the pair of opposites that characterize conditioned existence. Often used in the canon to describe the dual nature of sensory experience.

Etymology. sukha from su- (well, good; cognate with Greek eu-, as in eulogy) + √kh (from PIE *swekw-, to be at ease); dukkha from du- (bad, hard; cognate with Greek dys- as in dysfunction) + √kh, the same root as sukha but inverted by the prefix. Together they form a natural dyad expressing the fundamental oscillation of conditioned phenomena.

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

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