Pali Dictionaries

Explore the ancient language of the Tipitaka and Theravāda commentaries
DarrenM
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by DarrenM »

That’s great, thanks Pitakele.
“Householder, you have provided the community of monks with robes, alms food, lodgings, & medicinal requisites for the sick, but you shouldn’t rest content with the thought, ‘We have provided the community of monks with robes, alms food, lodgings, & medicinal requisites for the sick.’ So you should train yourself, ‘Let’s periodically enter & remain in seclusion & rapture.’ That’s how you should train yourself.”
AN 5.176- Rapture
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pitakele
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by pitakele »

aniccā vata saṇkhārā - tesaṁ vūpasamo sukho
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manas
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by manas »

retrofuturist wrote: Fri Jan 02, 2009 12:21 am Greetings,

A couple of handy references, for anyone interested in looking up the meaning of certain Pali words!

For me, the first port of call is usually...

Buddhist Dictionary - Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, by Nyanatiloka
http://www.palikanon.com/english/wtb/dic_idx.html

... and if I'm still in doubt or need more precision on the term, I turn to...

The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary
http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/

Does anyone else have any dictionaries, especially on-line ones, that they find useful?

Metta,
Retro. :)
Hi, when I want to look up a particular pali term - let's take viññāṇa for example - I have to find it in a sutta, then copy and paste it into the dictionary. Is there a special program or whatever (I'm not very tech-savvy) one can enter into one's pc (or a special keyboard, to make it even simpler), by means of which one could add those little squiggly things over the 'n's and the line over the 'a' manually? (I would also welcome more scholarly definitions of 'squiggly things' and 'line')?

This would also enable me to begin typing out entire pali phrases or sentences on my own, something I feel would foster better memory and understanding.
:anjali:
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
Srilankaputra
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by Srilankaputra »

manas wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:11 pm
retrofuturist wrote: Fri Jan 02, 2009 12:21 am Greetings,

A couple of handy references, for anyone interested in looking up the meaning of certain Pali words!

For me, the first port of call is usually...

Buddhist Dictionary - Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, by Nyanatiloka
http://www.palikanon.com/english/wtb/dic_idx.html

... and if I'm still in doubt or need more precision on the term, I turn to...

The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary
http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/

Does anyone else have any dictionaries, especially on-line ones, that they find useful?

Metta,
Retro. :)
Hi, when I want to look up a particular pali term - let's take viññāṇa for example - I have to find it in a sutta, then copy and paste it into the dictionary. Is there a special program or whatever (I'm not very tech-savvy) one can enter into one's pc (or a special keyboard, to make it even simpler), by means of which one could add those little squiggly things over the 'n's and the line over the 'a' manually? (I would also welcome more scholarly definitions of 'squiggly things' and 'line')?

This would also enable me to begin typing out entire pali phrases or sentences on my own, something I feel would foster better memory and understanding.
:anjali:
Hi,

I believe the squiggly things are called diacritical marks. The following might help.

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/in ... ystems/311

Wish you all success in all your endeavours. Goodbye!
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Dhammanando
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by Dhammanando »

manas wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:11 pm (or a special keyboard, to make it even simpler)
For Mac-users there's the Easy Unicode keyboard layout.

http://www.palitext.com/subpages/EasyUnicode5.zip

Just download and open the zip file, place the keyboard in the keyboard folder of your system library and then open keyboard preferences and select it. Use the option key to type diacritics, thus:

option a = ā
option i = ī
option u = ū
option g or k = ṅ
option t = ṭ
option d = ḍ
option n = ṇ
option c or j = ñ
option l = ḷ
option m = ṃ

Sanskrit

option r = ṛ
option h = ḥ
option s = ś
option x = ṣ
Rūpehi bhikkhave arūpā santatarā.
Arūpehi nirodho santataro ti.


“Bhikkhus, the formless is more peaceful than the form realms.
Cessation is more peaceful than the formless realms.”
(Santatarasutta, Iti 73)
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manas
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by manas »

Srilankaputra wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2020 1:43 pm

Hi,

I believe the squiggly things are called diacritical marks. The following might help.

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/in ... ystems/311
Thank you :anjali: sorry I took a while to reply
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
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manas
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by manas »

Dhammanando wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 3:15 am
manas wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:11 pm (or a special keyboard, to make it even simpler)
For Mac-users there's the Easy Unicode keyboard layout.

http://www.palitext.com/subpages/EasyUnicode5.zip

Just download and open the zip file, place the keyboard in the keyboard folder of your system library and then open keyboard preferences and select it. Use the option key to type diacritics, thus:

option a = ā
option i = ī
option u = ū
option g or k = ṅ
option t = ṭ
option d = ḍ
option n = ṇ
option c or j = ñ
option l = ḷ
option m = ṃ

Sanskrit

option r = ṛ
option h = ḥ
option s = ś
option x = ṣ
Thank you Bhante for your advice :anjali: sorry it took a while for me to reply.

I currently use a pc, not a mac, but it's good to know for future reference
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
figurehigh
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by figurehigh »

I wrote a velthuis-diacritics converter app recently. But if you are looking up terms in the PED, it's not just the squiggly things (diacritics) you need to worry about...
The PED uses an old form of niggahīta ' η ' instead of ṃ and also only lists what are termed 'true niggahīta' (also sometimes called true anusvāra) - using equivalent nasal forms for 'false niggahīta'. It also lists 'ṇ' as just 'n'...
So I thought I'd write a tool to aid PED lookup.
https://palistudies.blogspot.com/2019/0 ... -pali.html
You can type or cut and paste then click the button and it will reformat the search term for you.
This is a javascript based app so you will need javascripot enabled - but thats usually the default now-a-days.
pulga
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by pulga »

"Dhammā=Ideas. This is the clue to much of the Buddha's teaching." ~ Ven. Ñanavira, Commonplace Book
hantang
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by hantang »

Hi,

I have OCRed Childers' A Dictionary of Pali Language (1872), which made the pdf file searchable. I would like to share it here.

I find this dictionary practical (though very old) in that it contains lots of examples and the English translation of them for a lexical item. The OCRed file is not perfect, because the program is not good at processing printed diacritics.

pdf file url:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12NSgVd ... sp=sharing
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Kare
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by Kare »

Hi,
I've been away from the Dhamma Wheel for some years, so maybe the answer to my question is obvious to everyone else here. But I'll chance it:

The new multivolume dictionary from PTS is really good, but it is not complete yet. Three volumes have been published. Does anyone know when the next volume is due?
Mettāya,
Kåre
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Dhammanando
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by Dhammanando »

Kare wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 2:22 pm The new multivolume dictionary from PTS is really good, but it is not complete yet. Three volumes have been published. Does anyone know when the next volume is due?
Hi Kåre,

Nice to see you back.

Margaret Cone gave an interview back in 2015 when she was still working on the third volume. In it she said that she didn't expect to complete the fourth in this life. If that's still how matters stand today, then I suppose if/when it gets completed will depend on whether there's some other scholar willing to carry the baton.

.
Rūpehi bhikkhave arūpā santatarā.
Arūpehi nirodho santataro ti.


“Bhikkhus, the formless is more peaceful than the form realms.
Cessation is more peaceful than the formless realms.”
(Santatarasutta, Iti 73)
ssasny
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by ssasny »

I believe Margaret Cone has passed the baton to a scholar in Germany, Martin Straube.
I'm sure it will take several more years before the final volume appears.

See here for more information:

http://palitext.com/subpages/proj.htm
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SDC
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Re: Pali Dictionaries

Post by SDC »

Kare wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 2:22 pm Hi,
I've been away from the Dhamma Wheel for some years…
You’ve been missed. Glad to see you around. :smile:
“Life is swept along, short is the life span; no shelters exist for one who has reached old age. Seeing clearly this danger in death, a seeker of peace should drop the world’s bait.” SN 1.3
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