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attā

atta

masc nom sg of atta (noun); masc voc sg of atta (noun); masc nom pl of atta (adj); fem nom sg of atta (adj); …

1. self; soul; spirit; essence
2. personal; related to oneself
3. taking up; accepting; seizing; grasping; lit. taken
4. taken up; accepted; seized; grasped
5. (gram) the negative prefix a; lit. na state
6. body; form

Etymology. From PIE *sweț- 'self', the same root as Sanskrit ātman, Latin suus 'his own', Old English swā 'so', and German Selbst. The stem atta- is the nominative form of this reflexive pronoun. In Buddhist doctrine, atta denotes the self or person; the doctrine of anattā ('non-self') denies the existence of a permanent, unchanging atta.

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

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