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sutte

sutta

nt acc pl of sutta (noun); nt loc sg of sutta (noun); masc acc pl of sutta (pp); nt acc pl of sutta (pp); …

1. sleeping; asleep; lit. slept
2. lying down; sleeping; lit. slept
3. lying down; sleeping; lit. slept
4. scripture; discourse; sacred text; lit. thread
5. (vinaya) rule; regulation; precept
6. thread; string
7. (gram) grammatical rule

Etymology. From √su- 'sew, stitch' (cognate with Latin suere, English seam, sew). The semantic shift from 'thread' to 'discourse' reflects how discourses are 'strung together' (thread of argument); 'sleeping' is from a past participle sense (literally 'sewn' → 'stitched together' in sleep). The Pali canonical texts (suttas) are the 'threads' of the Buddha's teaching woven into a connected whole.

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

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