What is a woman?
What is a woman?
Could someone provide me with the Pali word for woman and its definition?
Re: What is a woman?
The Pali word for woman is itthi, and its definition is "woman".
Re: What is a woman?
The easiest way to access the P E.D. is via the search function on Sutta Central.New Concise Pali English Dictionary
nara
masculine
a man; a person; plural men; people
Re: What is a woman?
A man is plural???
Do you have a link to the definitions, I’m having trouble accessing sutta central.
Re: What is a woman?
https://suttacentral.net/search?query=nara
Simply append any Pali word you want to search after the 'query=' part. So for the example above, it meant "man" in singular, and "men" in plural form.
Re: What is a woman?
So is the definition of man in Pali simply a person.santa100 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 23, 2022 1:49 amhttps://suttacentral.net/search?query=nara
Simply append any Pali word you want to search after the 'query=' part. So for the example above, it meant "man" in singular, and "men" in plural form.
And a woman is a woman?
I found a link to woman in Pali itthi and the definition says an adult human female.
But I could not find anything for man.
Re: What is a woman?
itthi
feminine
a female; a woman; a wife.
Here is the definition from the link.
And here is one from another link.
Itthi: adult human female.
So these are differing. The latter is similar to Oxford dictionary definition of a woman. But sutta central seems to denote a woman as a wife(married). Why the difference? Is there another word for woman in Pali or another term used to describe an unwed female?
feminine
a female; a woman; a wife.
Here is the definition from the link.
And here is one from another link.
Itthi: adult human female.
So these are differing. The latter is similar to Oxford dictionary definition of a woman. But sutta central seems to denote a woman as a wife(married). Why the difference? Is there another word for woman in Pali or another term used to describe an unwed female?
Re: What is a woman?
To be honest, I'd have to say your effort to use suttacentral.net's Pali dictionary for definition of male vs. female won't be very fruitful, for you're referencing a ~ 2,500 yr-old system to define terms which contexts have evolved way beyond what the old scholars 2,500 yrs ago had in mind, for better or for worse.
Re: What is a woman?
Is a bhikku a biological male and a bhikkuni a biological female?santa100 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 23, 2022 2:34 amTo be honest, I'd have to say your effort to use suttacentral.net's Pali dictionary for definition of male vs. female won't be very fruitful, for you're referencing a ~ 2,500 yr-old system to define terms which contexts have evolved way beyond what the old scholars 2,500 yrs ago had in mind, for better or for worse.
I’m trying to decipher the Pali words which denote man and woman as to segregate the two as is done.
Now if itthi is woman and defined without a biological sex and similarly man is defined as a person or men in plural and no biological sex is mentioned, why segregate the sangha into bhikkus and bhikkunis?
Re: What is a woman?
All these questions are outside the scope of the Pali sub-forum. Whether bhikkhus and bhikkhunis are biologically based is more a question about the sangha and monasticism. The Pali sub-forum is not here so that people can raise their contemporary concerns about sex and gender. You already have a couple of other threads going on this or related topics. Further off-topic posts will be removed.thepea wrote: ↑Thu Jun 23, 2022 11:01 amIs a bhikku a biological male and a bhikkuni a biological female?santa100 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 23, 2022 2:34 amTo be honest, I'd have to say your effort to use suttacentral.net's Pali dictionary for definition of male vs. female won't be very fruitful, for you're referencing a ~ 2,500 yr-old system to define terms which contexts have evolved way beyond what the old scholars 2,500 yrs ago had in mind, for better or for worse.
I’m trying to decipher the Pali words which denote man and woman as to segregate the two as is done.
Now if itthi is woman and defined without a biological sex and similarly man is defined as a person or men in plural and no biological sex is mentioned, why segregate the sangha into bhikkus and bhikkunis?
Re: What is a woman?
Could someone provide definition for bhikku and for bhikkuni?
Re: What is a woman?
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, however...
1) Go to Sutta Central here: https://suttacentral.net/
2) At the top right of the page, you will see a little magnifying glass symbol. Click on it.
3) You will see the box next to it opens, and the word "search" comes up. Type the Pali word in there, and then press Enter.
4) Ta-Daaaa!
(Note that the "masculine" bit merely refers to the gender of the noun, not whether the noun or all or any bhikkhus have a penis.)bhikkhu
masculine
a Buddhist monk
5) Now try with "bhikkhuni". Note how both terms have a second "h" in them. The look-up likes exact spellings, but it isn't fussy about diacritic markings. If in doubt, leave them out.
Re: What is a woman?
The spelling must be what was preventing the definitions from coming up. I was getting a bunch of other stuff.Sam Vara wrote: ↑Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:41 pmGive a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, however...
1) Go to Sutta Central here: https://suttacentral.net/
2) At the top right of the page, you will see a little magnifying glass symbol. Click on it.
3) You will see the box next to it opens, and the word "search" comes up. Type the Pali word in there, and then press Enter.
4) Ta-Daaaa!
(Note that the "masculine" bit merely refers to the gender of the noun, not whether the noun or all or any bhikkhus have a penis.)bhikkhu
masculine
a Buddhist monk
5) Now try with "bhikkhuni". Note how both terms have a second "h" in them. The look-up likes exact spellings, but it isn't fussy about diacritic markings. If in doubt, leave them out.
Bhikkhuni: an almswoman, a female mendicant a Buddhist nun
So you are correct with regards to Bhikkhu saying masculine but for bhikkhuni it is specific to sex with female definition.