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virāgāya

virāga

masc dat sg of virāga (noun)

1. fading of desire (for); dispassion (towards); detachment (from); indifference (to)
2. fading; disappearance; destruction (of); lit. de-colouring

Built from

• vi — prefix · apart, asunder
  Intensifying and separative prefix implying the undoing or scattering of a unified state. Works like Latin dis- and English divide.
• rāga — root · color, passion, lust
  From √rañj- 'to color or dye'; the word's primary sense is visual coloring, but extends metaphorically to emotional staining and craving. In Pali doctrine, rāga is one of the three unwholesome roots (lobha) and a chief fuel of saṁsāra.

Analysis. vi- (apart, asunder) + rāga (color, passion, lust): the undoing or fading away of passion; in doctrine, the cooling of craving that leads toward Nibbāna.

Etymology. From vi- (apart, asunder; cognate with Latin dis-, English divide) + rāga (color, dye, passion; from √rañj- 'to color', cognate with Latin ringor and Sanskrit rañjati). The prefix vi- gives the sense of unraveling or dispersal; rāga's root sense of 'coloring' metaphorically extends to emotional staining or passion, so virāga is the defading or loss of that coloration—indifference and dispassion.

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

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