It’s what the nuns wear when they go swimming

I happened upon this passage in a book called The Chinese Language: Its History and Current Usage by Daniel Kane, in a section on loanwords from Sanskrit:

In some words, only one part of the original has survived: the in 尼姑 ní​gū​ “Buddhist nun” is the last syllable of the Sanskrit bhikkini (sic)…

The Sanskrit word, of course, is भिक्षुणी bhikṣuṇī. Its Chinese transliteration is 比丘尼 bǐ​qiū​ní​. The author seems to have been thinking of bhikkhunī, which is the equivalent word in Pali and other Prakrits, and swimwear.

– davinci 11811

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