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 ní in 尼姑 nígū “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 bǐqiūní. 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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