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vayoanuppatto

vayoanuppatta

masc nom sg of vayoanuppatta (adj)

1. reached the last stage of life; reached old age

Built from

• vayo — root · life-span, age
  From √vay (to weave, pass through time). Cognate with Sanskrit vaya and Old English "weave", both capturing the notion of temporal passage as a woven thread.
• an — prefix · not, without
  Negation prefix a/an-. Plain negation without value judgment.
• ud — prefix · up, forth, out
  Directional prefix: motion upward and emergence. Spatial concreteness preserved in the idea of reaching or attaining a level.
• patta — ending · reached, attained
  Past participle of √pad (to reach, attain; Sanskrit prāpta, Latin prehendere). The full form an-ud-patta is a nominal adjective marked for masculine nominative singular agreement with the subject.

Analysis. vayo (old age, span of life) + anuppatta (not reached, unattained); or vayo + an-uppatta (not yet arrived at); the compound plays on the paradox: one whose life-span has not-yet-been-reached is one at the limit of years, i.e., elderly or approaching death.

Etymology. vayo from √vay (to weave, to pass time; cognate with Sanskrit vaya, English "weave" in the sense of temporal sequence); anuppatta is a-n (not) + ud-patta, from ud (up, forth) + patta (past participle of √pad, to reach, attain; Sanskrit prāpta, Latin prehendere "seize"). The prefix ud- suggests arrival or emergence; the negation a- inverts it to mark the boundary condition—the stage one has not yet transcended.

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

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