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yebhuyyena

yebhuyya

masc instr sg of yebhuyya (adj); nt instr sg of yebhuyya (adj)

1. yebhuyya (adj): whichever is more; whichever is greater
2. yebhuyyena (ind): mostly; almost all; more or less; generally; largely; by and large; for the most part
3. yebhuyyena (ind): normally; usually; lit. mostly

Built from

• ye- — prefix · which, whatever
  Relative pronoun stem, Sanskrit ya-, cognate with Greek hos and Latin qui ("who"). Introduces a relative or indefinite sense.
• bhuyya — root · more, greater
  Comparative/superlative form of bahu "much, many" (Sanskrit bahú-). Semantically related to English "big" in sense of quantity/magnitude.
• -ena — ending · instrumental case marker
  The instrumental singular ending -ena marks the manner or standard: "by means of, in the manner of." Here it adverbializes the adjective, so "by the greater/more" becomes "mostly".

Analysis. yebhuyya is an adjective meaning "whichever is greater/more"; yebhuyyena is its instrumental singular form used as an indeclinable adverb. ye- (relative pronoun "which") + bhuyya (comparative superlative form of bahu "much, many") + instrumental ending -ena. The instrumental case here functions adverbially to mark the manner or standard by which something is reckoned: "by the greater (part)", hence "mostly".

Etymology. yebhuyya compounds ye- (Pali relative stem, Sanskrit ya-, cognate with Greek hos and Latin qui) with bhuyya, the comparative/superlative of bahu "much, many" (Sanskrit bahú-, cognate with English "big" in the sense of magnitude, though the surface forms diverged). The adverbial instrumental -ena derives from Proto-Indo-European instrumental case marker. The sense develops naturally: "by the greater portion" > "mostly".

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

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