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supinakūpamā

supinakūpama

masc nom pl of supinakūpama (adj); fem nom sg of supinakūpama (adj); fem nom pl of supinakūpama (adj); nt nom pl of supinakūpama (adj); …

1. like a dream; similar to a dream

Built from

• su — prefix · well, good
  From the Indo-European root *su-, cognate with Greek eu- (eulogy). Here it forms the base for supina 'sleep' as a natural or positive state.
• pina — root · sleep, slumber
  Related to Sanskrit svapna 'dream'. The root carries the sense of unconsciousness or unthinking oblivion that sleep entails.
• kū — root · resemble, be like
  A verb of comparison; -ma nominalization creates the sense of 'similarity' or 'likeness'.
• ma — ending · agent noun suffix
  Transforms a verb into an adjective or noun expressing the quality or condition; here creates kūpama 'like, similar'.

Analysis. supina (dream) + kūpama (like, similar to); a compound adjective meaning 'resembling a dream', used to illustrate the illusory nature of conditioned phenomena.

Etymology. supina is derived from su (well, good) + pina (sleep, slumber), originally meaning 'well-sleeping' or 'sleep-state'; kūpama is from kū (to cry out, resemble) + -ma (agent suffix), meaning 'resemblant' or 'similar'. The compound invokes the standard doctrinal simile of dreams and sleep-imagery for the unreality of saṁsāra.

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

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