The Pali Text Society's Pali-English dictionary - Tuninst.net

VII
However this may be, it has become of essential importance to have a Dictionary
of a language the history of whose literature is bound up with so many delicate and
interesting problems. The Pali Text Society, after long continued exertion and many
cruel rebuffs and disappointments is now at last in a position to offer to scholars the
first instalment of such a dictionary.
The merits and demerits of the work will be sufficiently plain even from the
first fasciculus. But one or two remarks are necessary to make the position of my
colleague and myself clear.
We have given throughout the Sanskrit roots corresponding to the Pali roots,
and have omitted the latter. It may be objected that this is a strange method to
use in a Pali dictionary, especially as the vernacular on which PaU is based had
never passed through the stage of Sanskrit. That may be so; and it may not be
possible, historically, that any Pali word in the canon could have been actually derived
from the corresponding Sanskrit word. Nevertheless the Sanskrit form, though arisen
quite independently, may throw light upon the Pali form ; and as Pali roots have not
yet been adequately studied in Europe, the plan adopted will probably, at least for
the present, be more useful.
This work is essentially preliminary. There is a large number of words of which
we do not know the derivation. There is a still larger number of which the derivation
does not give the meaning, but rather the reverse. It is so in every living language.
Who could guess, from the derivation, the complicated meaning of such words as
'conscience', 'emotion', 'disposition'? The derivation would be as likely to mislead as
to guide. We have made much progress. No one needs now to use the one English
word 'desire' as a translation of sixteen distinct Pali words, no one of which means
precisely desire. Yet this was done in Vol. X of the Sacred Books of the East by
Max Muller and FausbOll '). The same argument applies to as many concrete
words as abstract ones. Here again we claim to have made much advance. But in
either case, to wait for perfection would postpone the much needed dictionary to
the Greek kalends. It has therefore been decided to proceed as rapidly as possible
with the completion of this first edition, and to reserve the proceeds of the sale for
the eventual issue of a second edition which shall come nearer to our ideals of what
a Pali Dictionary should be.
We have to thank Mrs. StEDE for valuable help in copying out material noted
in my interleaved copy of Childers, and in collating indexes published by the Society;
Mrs. Rhys Davids for revising certain articles on the technical terms of psychology
and philosophy; and the following scholars for kindly placing at our disposal the
material they had collected for the now abandoned scheme of an international Pali
Dictionary:
Prof. Sten Konow. Words beginning with 5 or H. (Published in J P T S. 1909
and 1907, revised by Prof. Dr. D. Andersen).
Dr. Mabel H. Bode. B, Bh and M.
Prof. Duroiselle. K.
Dr. W. H. D. Rouse. C—N.
In this connection I should wish to refer to the work of Dr. EdMOND Hardy.
When he died he left a great deal of material-; some of which has reached us in
time to be made available. He was giving his whole time, and all his enthusiasm to
1) See Mrs. Rhys Davids in J R A S.^ 1898, p. 58.