ประเคน
Thai
Etymology
From Old Khmer pragena, pragēna, bragena (“to give or offer (something to a monk)”); extended forms of Angkorian Old Khmer gen (“to move; to put forward; to present; to offer; etc”). Cognate with Modern Khmer ប្រគេន (prɑkein).
Pronunciation
| Orthographic | ประเคน p r a e g n | |
| Phonemic | ปฺระ-เคน p ̥ r a – e g n | |
| Romanization | Paiboon | bprà-keen |
| Royal Institute | pra-khen | |
| (standard) IPA(key) | /pra˨˩.kʰeːn˧/ | |
Verb
ประเคน • (bprà-keen) (abstract noun การประเคน)
- to give or offer (something to a priest) by or as if by handing, especially as part of a ceremony or rite.
- (slang, humorous, sarcastic) to present; to offer.
- ประเคนหมัด
- bprà-keen màt
- to punch; to hook
(literally) to offer a fist
- ประเคนหมัด
Usage notes
An old woman gives objects to a monk by putting the objects on the พาน (paan) tray and the tray is again placed on a piece of cloth for the monk to take.
- According to the Thai Buddhist convention, an object is directly handed to a priest if the object can be carried with the hand and the giver is a male, but if the giver is a female, the giver only places the object on a piece of cloth and the priest will take the object from the cloth due to the religious taboo prohibiting a woman from touching a male priest. If the object is too heavy to carry, the object is bound with a sacred thread, called สายสิญจน์, and the thread is presented to the priest instead. If the object is a food and it is touched by a layperson after it has already been given to a priest, the whole process of giving needs to be renewed.[1]
References
- สำนักงานราชบัณฑิตยสภา (2010-05-31), “ประเคน (๓๑ พฤษภาคม ๒๕๕๓)”, in คลังความรู้ (in Thai), Bangkok: สำนักงานราชบัณฑิตยสภา, retrieved 2019-05-22