vuccatāvuso

sandhi form: 3rd person singular present passive of vuccati + vocative āvuso

is called, friend; is said to be, brothers

Built from

vuc — root · speak, say
From Indo-European *wek- (voice, speak). Cognates: Latin vox, English voice, German Wort. The root carries the sense of utterance and designation.
ca — ending · present passive
The suffix -ya- forms the passive stem, here appearing as -ta- in the present passive. The -i is the 3rd singular present marker, elided before āvuso.
ā — prefix · toward, up to
Directional prefix signaling motion toward the speaker or attention focused inward. Here integrated into āvuso.
vuso — stem · friend, companion
From ava- (down, forward) + sus- (to drive, urge), suggesting one who is driven or summoned forward, hence a companion summoned to listen. Used as a vocative form of address in the Suttas.

Analysis. vuccati (is called, is said) + āvuso (friend, vocative plural āvuso). The contraction occurs at a pause: final -i of vuccati elides before the initial ā of āvuso, and the two words merge into a single phonetic unit in recitation.

Etymology. vuccati from √vac (speak, say) — cognate with Latin vox (voice), English voice; āvuso from ava- (down, off) + sus- (to urge, drive forward), literally "driven forward", hence a companion or friend. The prefix ava- here gives the sense of directedness and attention toward another.

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

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