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udāhu

ind.

1. or (second part of a question)

Built from

• ud — prefix · up, out
  Upward and outward motion; here intensifying the interrogative force. Cognates: English 'out', German 'aus'.
• ā — prefix · toward
  Reverses direction toward the speaker; here reinforcing the interrogative orientation.
• hu — root · interrogative
  Ancient interrogative particle; related to Sanskrit katham 'how' and the Indo-European interrogative stem *kwo-/*kwe-.

Analysis. Compound of ud + ā + hu (interrogative particle). The prefix ud- (up, out) combines with ā- (toward) to give directional force to the question, while hu is an old interrogative marker; the whole construction marks the second (or alternative) part of a disjunctive question.

Etymology. ud- (up, out; cognate with English 'out', German 'aus') + ā- (toward; Sanskrit ā-) + hu- (interrogative particle, related to Sanskrit katham 'how' and Latin quī 'who'). The sense evolved from a literal 'up toward?' (a directional interrogative) to the conjunction 'or' in alternatives.

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

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