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vinassati

pr 3rd sg of vinassati (verb)

1. perishes; is destroyed
2. vanishes; disappears; goes away

Built from

• vi — prefix · apart, asunder
  Spatial prefix indicating disintegration in different directions; intensifies the sense of complete breakdown.
• nas — root · perish, be destroyed
  Root meaning decay and dissolution; carries the sense of natural disintegration inherent to conditioned phenomena.
• ati — ending · 3rd sg present
  Present indicative third-person singular; marks the word as a simple statement of what is happening now.

Analysis. vi + √nas: 'falls apart' or 'comes asunder', the root √nas meaning to perish or be destroyed, with the prefix vi- indicating the direction of that destruction—literally 'apart-perishes', hence the sense of complete disintegration.

Etymology. √nas (to perish, be destroyed) with prefix vi- (apart, asunder). The root nas is cognate with English 'nostalgia' (from Greek nostos 'return home') only in superficial form; the true sense lies in the root's meaning of decay and dissolution. In doctrine, vinassati is the natural endpoint of all conditioned things (saṅkhāra): impermanence (anicca) means each phenomenon inevitably vinassati.

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

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