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upādānaṁ

upādāna

accusative singular neuter

1. clinging, craving attachment
2. fuel (for fire)
3. the act of grasping or taking up

Built from

• upa — prefix · up close, near
  The image of drawing something near or alongside oneself; in compounds often intensifies the sense of 'taking' or 'grasping'.
• ā — prefix · toward
  Reverses or directs the action toward the agent; here 'toward oneself'.
• dhā — root · place, put, set
  From PIE *dheh₂-; cognate with English 'do', Latin 'facere'. The root describes physical placing, extended to 'taking up' or 'grasping'.
• na — stem · action, state
  The suffix -na (also -anā fem.) forms agent nouns or abstract nouns; here it nominalize the verbal action 'taking up' into a state or quality.
• ṁ — ending · accusative singular
  Marks the direct object of a verb; here the upādāna that the Buddha teaches as the 'fuel' that sustains saṁsāra.

Analysis. upa- 'up close to, taking near' + ā- 'toward' + √dhā 'placing, putting'; lit. 'placing/taking up close', so clinging as the fuel that keeps the fire of craving burning.

Etymology. upa- (approach, near) + ā- (toward) + dhā (place, put) — the spatial image of taking something up close to oneself. In the Four Noble Truths, upādāna is the second link in paṭiccasamuppāda, the craving that grasps at sense-objects and perpetuates suffering. Sanskrit upādāna; cognate with English 'up' and Greek 'hypo-' for the prefix upa-.

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

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