davinci’s notebook » swimwear http://stargrads.net/blogs/davinci everything is an experiment Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:31:14 +0000 fa hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 It’s what the nuns wear when they go swimming http://stargrads.net/blogs/davinci/2009/10/its-what-the-nuns-wear-when-they-go-swimming/ http://stargrads.net/blogs/davinci/2009/10/its-what-the-nuns-wear-when-they-go-swimming/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:11:22 +0000 davinci http://stargrads.net/blogs/davinci/?p=2414 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 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

No related posts.

]]> http://stargrads.net/blogs/davinci/2009/10/its-what-the-nuns-wear-when-they-go-swimming/feed/ 0