shanti

shanti

English

WOTD – 20 September 2022

Etymology

Transliteration of Sanskrit शान्ति (śānti, “calmness, peace, tranquillity; quietness, rest”),[1] from शम् (śam, “to exert or fatigue oneself, toil at; to become tired, come to an end, finish, stop; to be calm, contented, quiet, or satisfied; to calm, pacify, settle, soothe”) (from Proto-Indo-European *ḱemh₂- (“to exert oneself, toil”)) + -ति (-ti, suffix denoting a state of being).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ʃɑːnti/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ʃɑnti/, [-ɾi]
• (India) IPA^(key): /ˈʃaːnt̪i/
• Rhymes: -ɑːnti
• Hyphenation: shan‧ti

Interjection

shanti

1. (Hinduism) A call for peace, often recited three times as a prayer for peace of the soul.
   • 1922 October, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “Part V. What the Thunder Said.”, in The Waste Land, 1st book edition, New York, N.Y.: Boni and Liveright, published December 1922, OCLC 260599, pages 49 and 64:

     [lines 431–432, page 49] Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata. / Shantih shantih shantih […] [page 64, note 433] Shantih. Repeated as here, a formal ending to a Upanishad. "The Peace which passeth understanding" is a feeble translation of the content of this word.

Alternative forms

• shantih

Noun

shanti (uncountable)

1. (Hinduism) Peace, tranquility.

Alternative forms

• shantih

Translations

peace, tranquility — See also translations at peace,‎ tranquility

German: Shanti Hindi: शांति (hi) f (śānti), शान्ति (hi) f (śānti) Japanese: シャンティ Polish: śanti Russian: шанти (ru) f (šanti) Sanskrit: शान्ति (sa) f (śānti) Urdu: شانتی‎‎ f (śāntī), شانْتی‎‎ f (śāntī)

References

1. “shanti, int. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2022; “shanti, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

• shanti (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia