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vedanāya

vedana

fem instr sg of vedana (adj); masc dat sg of vedana (adj); fem dat sg of vedana (adj); nt dat sg of vedana (adj); …

1. 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
2. vedanā (fem): pain; lit. causing to know
3. vedana (adj): with felt experience; with a feeling; having a feeling tone; lit. causing to know

Built from

• ved — root · know, perceive
  √vid: to see, know. Cognates: Latin vidēre (video), English wit. The concrete sense of visual/cognitive perception becomes the abstract 'knowing-tone' or affective quality of experience.
• anā — ending · abstract noun
  Feminine abstract noun suffix. Nominalizes the root, turning the action of knowing into the noun vedanā, the felt quality of experience itself.

Etymology. From √vid 'to know, see' (cognate with Latin vidēre, English wit in "to wit"). The suffix -anā forms abstract nouns from verbal roots, so vedanā is literally 'the act or state of knowing/perceiving'. In Buddhist doctrine, vedanā is the experiential tone accompanying sense contact—not raw perception but its affective valence. Sanskrit jñāna 'knowledge' shares the same root.

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

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