Pali suffix -atthā

The Watercooler
1

May I know the exact or range of meaning(s) for the suffix atthā? As in
“The purpose of wisdom is direct knowledge, complete understanding, and giving up.”
“Paññā kho, āvuso, abhiññatthā pariññatthā pahānatthā”ti
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The meaning lookup on the SC site has this -
abhiññatthā

  1. adj. for the purpose of direct knowledge; for the sake of higher understanding [abhiññā + attha]
    Is “attha” then in the sense of ‘artha’ - for the purpose of, in the sense of?

Explanations elsewhere, for example here, are not very helpful…
Thanks!

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Greetings. :slight_smile:

I think abhiññattha is a compound, and so attha here is not a prefix, which might be the source of your confusion.

DPD actually explains it as abhiññāya + attha

Attha as a standalone word is explained as √ar + tha, which is explained as “meaning”, “significance”.

DPD is a great tool to analyse these compounds:

https://www.dpdict.net/?q=abhiññatthā

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arti means meaning in Indonesian language. In Malay, it becomes erti. Both are borrowed words from Sanskrit.

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The suffix -artham in Sanskrit (and its Pali form -atthā) when used at the end of a word serves like the dative of purpouse.

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Update: sorry I was partly wrong above, for I ignored the context behind the question.

“Paññā kho, āvuso, abhiññatthā pariññatthā pahānatthā”ti

Here the 3 words end as atthā as they are adjectives and have to take the same gender (fem) as the substantive noun paññā. Normally Skt -artham is Pāli atthaṃ, not atthā.

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Thanks! But I think the Feminine form is indicated by the ā at the end, not by the entire - atthā. As in abhiññatā
The DPDICT gives the meaning of abhiññattha (w/o the ā) as “for the purpose of direct knowledge; for the sake of higher understanding.”
It seems to understand -attha as “for the purpose, for the sake”…

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Yes correct, it is just the ending that marks the word as feminine.