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etadaññāya

gerund

1. understanding this

Built from

• eta — root · this
  Demonstrative pronoun, neuter accusative singular (etad). Cognate with English 'that' (Old English þæt) and Latin 'id'.
• aññā — stem · knowing
  Derived from ājānāti (to know, to recognize), itself from the root √jñā with prefix ā-, reversing motion to mean 'to come to know'.
• ya — ending · gerund
  Marks purpose or means ('in order to', 'for the sake of'). This suffix forms gerunds that express the goal or reason for an action.

Analysis. etad + aññāya; etad = eta (this) + d (neuter accusative singular); aññāya = gerund of ājānāti (know), meaning 'understanding' or 'in order to understand'. The compound means 'understanding this' or 'for the purpose of knowing this'.

Etymology. ājānāti (to know, to recognize) from √jñā (know), cognate with English 'know' (Old English cnawan), German 'kennen', and Latin 'noscere'; the prefix ā- reverses the motion of √gam, and here is found with √jñā in the sense of 'to come to know, to recognize'. The gerund ending -ya marks purpose or means.

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

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