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vikālabhojanā

vikālabhojana

nt nom pl of vikālabhojana (noun); nt instr sg of vikālabhojana (noun); nt abl sg of vikālabhojana (noun); nt voc sg of vikālabhojana (noun); …

1. eating between midday and dawn; (comm) eating between midday and sunset; lit. wrong time eating

Built from

• vi- — prefix · apart, wrong
  Marks deviation or intensity; here emphasizes departure from the proper time. Related to dvi 'two', expressing separation and distinction.
• kāla — root · time, season
  From √kal- 'to reckon'; the concrete sense of marking moments or seasons underlies the abstract 'time'. Related to the notion of dividing and ordering temporal cycles.
• bhojana — stem · eating, food
  From √bhuj- 'to enjoy, consume'; bhojana is the action noun (gerund). Literally 'that which is eaten' or 'the act of eating'.

Analysis. vi- (apart, wrong) + kāla (time) + bhojana (eating, food); a compound expressing the monastic offense of eating outside the permitted hours (before dawn or after midday).

Etymology. vi- intensifies the sense of deviation; kāla from √kal- (to reckon, count time), cognate with Latin caelum (heaven, the vault of time) in the sense of marking seasons; bhojana from √bhuj- (to enjoy, eat), related to English book (originally bark-tablets for recording), both from the root meaning to break/divide/portion out.

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

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