A Word A Day - Nirvana

Friday, 10 February 2006

This week's theme: loanwords from Sanskrit.

nirvana

(nir-VAH-nuh) noun

1. Freedom from the endless cycle of birth and death and related suffering.
2. An idealized state or place free of pain, worries, etc.

[From Sanskrit nirvana (blowing out, extinguishing, extinction), from nis- (out) + vati (it blows). Ultimately from Indo-European root we- (to blow) that is also the source of wind, weather, ventilate, window and wing.]

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