Vitakka: [vi+takka] reflection, thought, thinking; "initial application".... - k¤ma-, vihiµs¤-, vy¤p¤da- (sensual, malign, cruel thought): D III.226; S II.151 sq.; III.93; A I.148, 274 sq.; II.16, 117, 252; III.390, 428. Opp. nekkhamma-, avy¤p¤da-, avihiµs¤- A I.275; II.76; III.429. - vitakka is often combd with vic¤ra or "initial and sustained application" Mrs. Rh. D.; Cpd. 282; "reflection and investigation" Rh. D.; to denote the whole of the mental process of thinking (viz. fixing one's attention and reasoning out, or as Cpd. 17 expls it "vitakka is the directing of concomitant properties towards the object; vic¤ra is the continued exercise of the mind on that object."... Both are properties of the first jh¤na (called sa-vitakka sa-vic¤ra) but are discarded in the second jh¤na (called a-). See e. g. D. I.37; S IV.360 sq.; A IV.300; Vin III.4;... Note. Looking at the combn vitakka+vic¤ra in earlier and later works one comes to the conclusion that they were once used to denote one and the same thing: just thought, thinking, only in an emphatic way (as they are also semantically synonymous), and that one has to take them as one expression, like j¤n¤ti passati, without being able to state their difference. With the advance in the Sangha of intensive study of terminology they became distinguished mutually. Vitakka became the inception of mind, or attending, and was no longer applied, as in the Suttas, to thinking in general. The explns of Commentators are mostly of an edifying nature and based more on popular etymology than on natural psychological grounds.

PED on Line (no diacriticals): "Vitakka"
PED on Line (unicode font required): "Vitakka"