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vedanāsu
vedana
fem loc pl of vedana (adj); fem loc pl of vedanā (noun)
- vedanā (fem): (pleasant, unpleasant or neutral) felt experience; feeling; feeling tone; hedonic tone; sensation (coming from six sense experience); second of the five aggregates; lit. causing to know
- vedanā (fem): pain; lit. causing to know
- vedana (adj): with felt experience; with a feeling; having a feeling tone; lit. causing to know
Built from
- ved — root · to know
The root vid means "to see, know, perceive". Cognates: English wit (witan), Latin vidēre, Greek ἰδεῖν (idein). The concrete sense is perception or recognition through sight or understanding.
- anā — ending · that which (agent noun, fem)
The suffix -anā forms feminine agent nouns ("she who does X" or "that which does X"). Here it creates an abstract noun: vedanā = "that which causes knowing", the felt quality of experience.
Etymology. From √vid "to know" (cognates: English wit, Latin vidēre "to see", Greek ἰδεῖν idein "to see"). The suffix -anā (fem agent noun) gives vedanā literally "that which causes knowing", the felt quality that makes experience recognizable. In the canon, vedanā is the affective tone (sukha, dukkha, adukkhamasukha) that arises at the contact of sense organ, sense object, and sense faculty.