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Da·lai La·ma

(dä′lī lämə)

The traditional temporal head of the dominant sect of Buddhism in Tibet and Mongolia, revered by Tibetan Buddhists as the living incarnation of the bodhisattva of compassion.

[Tibetan tāi-la'i-bla-ma : Mongolian dalai, ocean, also used as an epithet meaning “great, universal” (from Old Turkic talūy, ocean, perhaps from Early Middle Chinese *da' lwi' (ᶊyj´), the great Sanggan (River) : da', variant of daj^h, great; see DAIKON + lwi', ancient name (now read lěi in Mandarin) of the Sanggan River in Shanxi and Hebei, possibly taken to be part of the mythic world-encircling ocean by early medieval Central Asian nomads raiding China) + Tibetan bla-ma, guru, teacher of dharma; see LAMA.]

(click for a larger image)

Dalai Lama

photographed in 2009

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

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Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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