‹ Back to the text

vācā

vāca

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

1. vāca (adj): talking; speaking; of speech
2. vācā (fem): speech; words; statement; talk
3. vācā (fem): line of verse; sentence

Built from

• vāc — root · speak, say
  The root meaning is the action of utterance. Cognates: Latin vōx (voice), Greek ops (voice, utterance), English voice, Sanskrit vāc. The abstract noun vāca reifies the act into the thing spoken.
• ā — ending · fem nom sg
  The feminine nominative singular ending -ā marks vāca as feminine and in the nominative case, used for the subject or topic of speech.

Etymology. From √vac (vāc-) 'speak', cognate with Latin vōx 'voice', English voice, Greek ops 'voice, utterance'; Sanskrit vāc f. 'speech'. The noun vāca (f.) derives from the root's nominalization, showing the semantic shift from the action of speaking to the product (words, speech).

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

Lite mode — plain HTML for e-readers and old browsers. Full version