Description:

The term 'taj' refers to pain. It comes from Old Common. It was a member of the abstract gender. On a base level it refers to physical pain, but is readily metaphorically extended to emotional pain.

Noun:

As a noun, 'taj' refers to pain, suffering, hurt or injury, in general or a specific instance. The derived form 'tajysyn' may sometimes be seen as a way of referring to pain in the abstract, or as a distancing idiom.

Buddishm:

It can be used as a word for the Buddhist concept of 'dukkha' in modern High Common, but is less popular than 'sih' or 'tukky' in this usage. In some Common-language Buddhist scriptures, 'sih', or 'unreality, dreaming', is described as leading to 'taj', 'pain, suffering'.

The derived form etáj has the sense of an affliction, disease or illness, especially chronic or non-communicable diseases.

Verb:

As a verb, 'taj' is a transitive skurun verb with an ergative causer of pain and an absolutive thing or being in pain. The nature of the subject and object can be ambiguous. The ergative subject can be an outside agent or an inanimate object that caused the absolutive object of the verb pain. It can also be a part of one's body that is in pain, and the absolutive object is the being experiencing the pain. So if your head hurts, you could say:

Ja mot tene taj a jen.
The rock has hurt the [my] head.

Or you could say:

Ja jen te taj we.
The [my] head hurts me.

The head is the thing in pain in both cases. There is also a very popular antipassive pali form where the absolutive subject is something which causes pain. So you could frame the second example as:

A jen se taj.
The [my] head hurts.

That means essentially the same thing, and could be framed as 'Ja jen wen se taj' to make it clear you're talking about yourself. Compare to:

A opraz se taj.
Fire hurts.

The subject of the antipassive, as you would expect, is either a part of a being which is in pain which is where the pain is localised (i.e., which is inflicting the pain), or else an outside thing capable of causing pain or which is causing pain.

To say that something or someone is generally suffering or in pain, the set phrase 'se pue na taj', 'feel pain', tends to be used, although the antipassive can take on an idiomatically reflexible quality in Common, so just saying 'se taj' for this sense is not impossible, although for this verb, other senses are possible. For example:

A pocuk se pue na taj.
The child is feeling pain.

A pocuk se taj.
The child hurts.

The second could have the same sense as the first, but could just as easily mean that the child inflicts pain, i.e., a difficult or unruly child. The first is unambiguous.

Modifier:

The modifier form 'tajys' just means 'painful' and is ambiguous about whether the reference is in pain or a sources of pain. The commonly used derived forms 'tajcas' and a 'tajkas' resolve that ambiguity, the former meaning having the quality of inflicting pain, and the latter meaning having the quality of suffering.

Expressions:

Complaint, grievance:

The Common expression that means 'to complain', 'to state a grievance', is 'hap zisse a taj'. The subject of the complaint or grievance can be introduced with 're', and the recipient of the complaint is the dative indirect object.

In the noun form, a complaint or grievance is 'na lawt na taj'.

Grief/Grieve:

In the verbal sense of to grive (a loss), the Common expression is 'se taj na exti', with the adverbial expression 'na exti' added introduced with the null preposition. Grief is 'na taj na exti', the pain of loss.