The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary

(a) I have already given a fairly exhaustive list of abbreviations. To these might be added a good many
more if we were writing a dictionary for inexperienced people. The less explanations necessary in a
dictionary, the better: it should explain itself; and if there are any little things not intelligible at first, they
will become so with gradual use. A dictionary is like a friend with whom you have to get thoroughly
acquainted before you come to know his peculiarities. A dictionary can be too explicit: it will then lose its
charm and become tedious. It must contain a certain amount of hints, instead of ready solutions; the more it
arouses the curiosity (and sometimes the anger!) of its user, the better it is for the latter. The main purpose
of the dictionary is to explain; it is a means of education as well as of information. To this category belong
the (sometimes objected to) grammatical and etymological hints. I am fully aware that they are incomplete
and sometimes perhaps problematic, but that does not matter so much in a provisional dictionary. It does
our students good to get a little etymology thrown in once in a while. It makes them interested in the
psychology of language, and teaches them the wide range of sound changes, besides making them aware of
their study as a thing that has been alive and through a process of werden. We are still at a stage of Pali
philology, where we can hardly get enough of that kind of thing.
(b) The following are a few additional explanations concerning the use of the Dictionary.--In the Jataka
quotations I have not distinguished between the text and the commentary (J and JA). That is rather a pity;
but it was my colleague's wish. We might also have kept the index figures of lines, as it is sometimes very
difficult to find a word in the small--print C. portions of the J. books. -- Difficult forms, although belonging
to some one verb in question, I have given separately, as a help for the student.--The Causatives have
undergone a mixed treatment: sometimes they are given under the simple verb, especially when their form
was not very different, sometimes separately, when their form was unusual.--The problem of the derivation
of Pali words is not cleared yet. We have interchanged between the Pali and the Sanskrit derivations.--An
asterisk with Sanskrit words (*Sk.) means that the word is late and found only in technical literature, i. e.
either gram.--lexic. (like Amarakosa), or professional (like Susruta).--For convenience'sake we have
identified the guttural o with the dental n. The cerebral k follows upon 1.--P.D. refers to Pali Dictionary.
(c) Many of the Dictionary's faults are to be excused by the fact that its composition covers a number of
years, and that printing was going on all the time (a great drawback for the unity of the work!), so that
changes could not be made in earlier parts, which were found advisable later. here belong: 1. Roots and
compounds cropped up which are not foreseen in the beginning. -- 2. Cross--references are not always
exact. -- 3. There exists a certain inaccuracy in the relation between words beginning with ava_ and o_. At
first these were treated jointly, but later separated. -- 4. Several mistakes were found in Rhys
Davids'excerpts later and are, like others which I have corrected (see e. g. veyyavacca), to be explained by
lack of material, or by Rhys Davids being misled through Childers. -- 5. Many explanations are only
tentative. I would change them now, but refrain from discussing them in the "Addenda," since too many of
these confuse rather than enlighten the student. To these belong e. g. nibbedha and vipancita (which ought
to be viyanjita).-- 6. It could hardly be avoided that, in the course of the work, a problem has presented
itself with different solutions at different times, so that discrepancies have arisen with one and the same
word. These cases, however, are rare.
(d) Now, after all this, what is the Dictionary, and what does it claim to be? First of all, it is meant to be a
dictionary of Classical and Literary Pali. Words only found in native vocabularies (the Abhp e. g.) are left
out, as they are only Pali adaptations of Sanskrit words (mostly lexicographical: sannakaddu=sannakadru,
Am.K. only). Nor are we concerned with Inscriptions. Thus it is intended as a general stock--taking of the
Pali Canon, and a revision of all former suggestions of translations. It is essentially a working basis for
further study and improvement. The main object has been to bring as much material as possible to serve
future work, and this in a clear and attractive form. Many words remain doubtful. We have given them with
Buddhaghosa's interpretation, which may be right and which may be wrong. There are some words of
which we shall never know the exact meaning, just as it is difficult even in modern times to know the exact
meaning of, say, an English or German dialect word.Other specific terms with a "doctrinal" import are best
left untranslated, since we are unable to translate them adequately with our Western Christian terminology.
See remarks under sankhara and cp. Mrs. Rhys Davids in K.S. III., preface p. v.