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tadāhāranirodhā

tadāhāranirodha

masc nom pl of tadāhāranirodha (noun); masc instr sg of tadāhāranirodha (noun); masc abl sg of tadāhāranirodha (noun); masc voc sg of tadāhāranirodha (noun); …

1. ending of that sustenance; cessation of that fuel

Built from

• tad — root · that
  Demonstrative pronoun, neuter nominative singular; points to a specific nutriment or sustenance.
• āhāra — stem · sustenance, fuel
  From √hṛ 'to carry, take'; the concrete image of taking food becomes metaphorically the support for any becoming or process.
• ni — prefix · down, in
  Negation prefix indicating the turning inward and suppression of motion; works as a marker of cessation and cessation-into-non-being.
• rodha — stem · blocking, cessation
  Nominal stem from √rudh 'to block, obstruct'; the concrete image of obstruction becomes the technical sense of suppression or cessation in doctrinal language.

Analysis. A compound: tad-āhāra-nirodha. Tad = 'that' (demonstrative); āhāra = 'sustenance, nutriment, fuel'; nirodha = 'cessation, suppression'. The compound denotes the cessation or ending of that particular nutriment or cause—a key term in the analysis of dependent origination (paṭiccasamuppāda), where the cessation of nutriment leads to the cessation of becoming.

Etymology. Nirodha is from ni- (down, into) + √rudh (to block, obstruct, check), originally expressing the turning inward and blockage of motion. The prefix ni- has concrete spatial roots in 'down' and 'into', which become the abstract sense 'suppression' or 'cessation'. The root √rudh appears in Sanskrit as rudh- (to obstruct), and the notion of blocking or stemming motion underlies all doctrinal uses in the canon. Āhāra ('sustenance') is from √hṛ (to take, carry)—the concrete image of taking food as fuel carries into the abstract meaning of any condition that sustains or nourishes becoming. Tad is a demonstrative pronoun, neuter singular nominative ('that'), from Indo-European *to- (the demonstrative stem seen also in English 'that', Latin 'iste').

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

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