odd word of the day

Hi all,

At D I 96 we encounter the odd word palloma in the phrase kumaaro pallomo
bhavissati, and at M I 17 pallomam aapaadi.m araññe vihaaraaya. In the
Diigha quotation palloma is evidently an adjective, in the second, however,
it is a noun in the accusative. How is this word derived? The commentator
Buddhaghosa derives the word from panna + loma (Sv 266) and understands it
to mean that the prince is not going to have hair-raising experiences, in
short his hair does not stand on end, it has so to speak "fallen down"
(panna < root pad) i.e. he is not going to be frightened. In the Majjhima
passage the same word is treated as a noun meaning peace. Buddhaghosa's
analysis is evidently correct and it signals a very important factor in
language development, that of elision of syllables for the sake of economy,
when a particular lexeme has no competion from other words. In the present
case the syllable /na/ was elided. Since the cluster /nl/ is impossible in
Pali /n/ was/ assimilated to /l/. There are other examples of elision in
Pali like cuddasa < catuddasa.


Regards,

Ole Pind


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