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vītataṇho

vītataṇha

masc nom sg of vītataṇha (adj)

1. free from desire; free from passion; without craving (for)

Built from

• vi- — prefix · apart, asunder
  The spatial sense of separation and clarity becomes the image of removal: what has gone apart from the mind no longer binds it.
• i — root · go
  The verb root "to go" in past participle form (vīta) means "gone"; cognate with Latin viāre and related to the IE root for motion.
• ta — ending · past participle
  The suffix -ta marks the perfective participle, showing that the action of "going" is complete and yields an adjectival state.
• taṇha — stem · craving, thirst
  From √tan "to stretch"; the root image is of tension and grasping. In Buddhist doctrine, taṇha is the second noble truth—the origin of suffering through the three streams of desire for sense-pleasure, becoming, and non-becoming.

Analysis. vīta (past participle of vi-√i "gone apart, removed") + taṇha ("craving, thirst") — one from whom craving has been separated; a stock epithet in the suttas for the arahant who has extinguished the three roots of greed, hatred, and delusion.

Etymology. vīta from vi- ("apart, asunder") + √i ("go"), cognate with Latin viāre "to travel"; taṇha from √tan ("to stretch, extend"), akin to Sanskrit tṛṣṇā "thirst" and English "tan" in the sense of tension. The metaphor is visceral: craving as the stretching of desire, which the liberated mind has stilled.

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

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