1word1day | Entries tagged with sanskrit

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Oct. 11th, 2018 | 07:55 am

banyan (BAN-yuhn) - n., an Indian trader, merchant, cashier, or money changer; a tropical Indian fig tree (Ficus benghalensis) with many aerial roots that descend from the branches and develop into additional trunks.

The tree, which is named after the traders (from Gujarati, from Sanskrit vānija, merchant), who were supposed to often set up shop in the spreading shade, starts life as an epiphyte -- its seeds sprout in the branches of other trees, then send down roots which eventually grow to strangle and kill its host. It then keeps growing and sending down more trunks until it is a grove unto itself.

Thanks, WikiMedia!

Crossposts: https://prettygoodword.dreamwidth.org/736916.html
You can comment here or there.

~~

prettygoodword.livejournal.com

dharna (DAHR-nuh, DUHR-nuh) - n., (in India) the practice of exacting justice or compliance with a just demand by sitting (and sometimes also fasting) at the door of an offender until either death or the demand is granted.

Not to be confused with dharma, which in Indian religions means the cosmic order, including the natural and moral principles for all beings and things, as well as the dutiful observance of this law -- better summarized as "right conduct." A typical example of dharna is a demand of a repayment of a debt, and it was also a popular form of protest during the Indian independence movement. The word was borrowed into English in the 1740s (yes, that far back) from Hindi & Urdu dharnā, from Sanskrit dharaṇaṃ, support/prop (a cognate of Latin firmus, meaning firm). Dharma, which is used in just about, all Indian religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, comes a different inflection of the same root, Sanskrit dhárma, that which supports or props.

---L.

med_cat

bodhisattva, n. bo·dhi·satt·va \ˌbō-di-ˈsət-və, -ˈsät-\
variants: or boddhisattva

: a being that compassionately refrains from entering nirvana in order to save others and is worshipped as a deity in Mahayana Buddhism

First Known Use: 1809

Etymology:

Sanskrit bodhisattva one whose essence is enlightenment, from bodhi enlightenment + sattva being

Recent Examples of bodhisattva from the Web

Recall that Patrick Swayze’s character in Point Break, for example, is named Bodhi, short for bodhisattva, a being who embodies the Buddhist ideal of compassion for all sentient beings.
— jaimal yogis, The Atlantic, "Is Surfing More Sport or Religion?," 23 July 2017

In this roughly five-foot-tall statue from Northern India, the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara sits in graceful repose on a seat bedecked with flower buds, one leg dangling beneath him.
— The New Yorker, "Christie’s: Asia Week," 31 Mar. 2017

The bearded bikers in black leather knelt gently in the shrines and gazed up at images of Avalokiteshvara, a bodhisattva personifying infinite compassion and mercy.
— lawrence osborne, Town & Country, "Why Everyone Is Traveling to Bhutan," 30 Mar. 2015

Author Bruce Boston writes with the voice of a poet, the heart of a bodhisattva, and the unblinking eye of an investigative reporter.
— daniel marcus, WIRED, "Stained Glass Rain," 1 Mar. 1995

ersatz-read.livejournal.com

jnana [juh-nah-nuh] , noun

Knowledge acquired through meditation and study.

I'm pretty sure my definition is a horrible oversimplification. I'll point you to Wikipedia and let you take it from there.

Etymology: Sanskrit

I chose this word because it was the final word spelled by the youngest qualifier for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, five-year-old Edith Fuller.

theidolhands.livejournal.com

mon·a·chop·sis [ˈmoʊnəˈkäpsĭs]:
origin: [1934] Sanskrit; Greek; monos= solitary, alone, or unique + opsis= like, appearance

noun
An underlying and unremitting sense of not really belonging.

*Last Week's Word: Dacha & Zoopraxiscope

Current Music: Bob James - Westchester Lady | Powered by Last.fm

theidolhands.livejournal.com

Apologies for my absence these past weeks, was utterly swamped at work, but I'm back with extra words to make up the difference!

a·bu·gi·da [ˌɑːbuːˈɡiːdə]:
origin: (1864) Ethiopian; from Ge'ez (a-bu-gi-da), the first four structures in the language, borrowed from the Greek idea of alpha-beta for alphabet.

noun
We tend to think in terms of our own anglo culture, which terms our written language as being based on the "alphabet", but abugida is based on four letters, and indicates a language where every consonant is connected to a vowel -- one alters the word by altering the vowel.

This basic style is at the core of many Abramaic & Eritrean languages with extensive texts regarding history, mankind, and philosophy -- the Brahmic family of India & Southeast Asia posses the most ancient of these languages. Sanskrit is a famous abugida style language couching great wealths of early human history. See also: Hindi, Burmese, Cree, Bengali, Malay, Ojibwe, etc.

An example of Cree.

( Pogroms and Deiparous )

theidolhands.livejournal.com

Although both of today's words come from the long-running television series, Poirot (based on the books by Agatha Christie), the first initially came to my attention via another British series, Two Fat Ladies -- blog dedication & recipe: here.

ked·ger·ee [ˌkɛdʒəˈriː]:
origin: (1600's) Hindi khicarī; Sanskrit khiccā= dish of rice.

noun
A humble British breakfast dish, adapted from an Indian khichdi, consisting of: curried rice, (smoked) flaked fish, hard-boiled eggs, parsley, (clarified) butter and/or cream; peas are another common addition. At it was originally made with just lentils & rice, some people like to add legumes too.

In the episode of Poirot, "The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly", an offered meal of kedgeree is a sign that -- despite the appearance of luxury -- the family is struggling financially. However, I think it sounds quite tasty!

Gordon Ramsey has also done his "posh" version.

ti·sane [ti-ˈzän]:
origin: (1400s) Latin ptisana; Greek ptisanē= crushed barley.

noun
An herbal infusion boiled into a beverage (for one's health); herbal tea.

Everyday, Poirot takes a "tisane" in the afternoon as a stimulant for his "little grey cells", which the Belgian detective prefers to the traditional English version of milky black caffeinated tea.

Current Music: Michael Jackson - Slave to the Rhythm | Powered by Last.fm

ersatz-read.livejournal.com

sandhi (s

, sän

-), noun

Modification of the form or sound of a word or morpheme under the influence of an adjacent word.

(A morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit in a language: it has meaning, but no smaller part of it has meaning. For example, 'unforgiveable' has three morphemes: 'un' and 'able' are bound morphemes, and 'forgive' is a free morpheme.)

One example of sandhi is the use of 'a' before words starting with a consonant (a hawk) and 'an' before words starting with a vowel (an owl).
Another is the phrase "cats and dogs", where 'cats' ends with an 's' sound but 'dogs' ends with a 'z' sound.
Those are both examples of external sandhi: changes at the boundaries of words.
Internal sandhi is a change within a word; the Wikipedia example is 'sympathy' (syn- + pathy).

Etymology: 1800s, from Sanskrit samdhi, 'placing together'. This sort of word modification is more common in Indian languages, and especially Sanskrit, hence the name.

Word of the Day!

Entries tagged with sanskrit

Thursday word: Banyan

This word is brought to you by prettygoodword:
Oct. 11th, 2018 | 07:55 am

Thursday word: dharna

Friday word: bodhisattva

Recent Examples of bodhisattva from the Web

Monday word: jnana

Sunday Word: Monachopsis

Sunday Words: Abugida, Pogroms, and Deiparous

Saturday Word & Sunday Word: Kedgeree & Tisane

belated Monday word: sandhi

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Entries tagged with sanskrit

This word is brought to you by prettygoodword:Oct. 11th, 2018 | 07:55 am

Recent Examples of bodhisattva from the Web

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Oct. 11th, 2018 | 07:55 am