WORD HISTORY: Zen

It is hard to believe that a word as Asian as Zen is ultimately an Indo-European word. Zen, which has been in English since 1727, is the Japanese pronunciation of Chinese chán, "quietude." Chán comes from Pali jhanam, from Sanskrit dhyanam, "meditation," from the Sanskrit root dhya-, dh1-, "to see, observe." The Indo-European root behind the Sanskrit is *dhya-, "to see, look at." This root also shows up in Greek, where *dhya- developed into sa-, as in Common Greek *sama, "sign, distinguishing mark." This became sema in Attic Greek, the source of English semantic.