lama

lama¹ llama

Pronunciation

• /la.ma/^[1]

Forms

lama m (plural lamas)^[1] From 1633 to 1878 the Spanish spelling llama was also used in French.^[2][3]

Etymology

The word for the animal is borrowed from Spanish llama, recorded in Spanish since 1535, which is from Quechua llama, the Quechua name of a Peruvian ruminant.^[2][3][4][1] The French word was first quoted in 1598 as a foreign, Indian term, and is found as a French word from 1637.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1598, in R. Regnault's French translation of a Spanish natural history of the Indies, quoted as a native Indian name; in 1637 Pierre d'Avity calls it the sheep of Peru, more profitable than any other animal.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Travel accounts made the word familiar in the 17th century, but the dictionaries of that century did not record it, and the Académie first admitted it in 1762.^[3] It shares its field with alpaga and vigogne, the names of particular kinds, and with guanaco, which names the animal in the wild.^[3][5] It also names cloth or wool made from the animal's fleece.^[6]

Timeline

• 1598 – First quoted, as an Indian word, in Regnault's translation from Spanish.^[2]
• 1633 – The Spanish spelling llama appears in French; it lasts until 1878.^[2][3]
• 1637 – Pierre d'Avity uses lama as a French word.^[2][5]
• 1762 – The Académie records the word.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A llama, a South American camelid with a long neck and a woolly coat, smaller than the camel and without a hump, living wild or domesticated in the Andes.^[6][2][5]
2. Cloth or wool made from the llama's fleece.^[6]

lama² Buddhist monk

Pronunciation

• /la.ma/^[1]

Forms

lama m (plural lamas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the Buddhist monk is borrowed from Tibetan བླ་མ (bla ma), written with a silent ⟨b⟩.^[2][3][1] The Tibetan word is a compound whose first part means “the superior”; the TLFi and the Grand Robert give its second part as “man”, Rey as “mother”, in the sense of the one who engenders awakening, and Littré takes it as a suffix.^[2][4][3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1629, in an account of events in the kingdom of Tibet drawn from letters written in 1626, naming a Buddhist priest of Tibet.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word names a Buddhist spiritual master of Tibet and Mongolia, who may or may not be a monk.^[3][6] Grand lama is the title of the spiritual sovereign of Tibet, matching the Tibetan dalaï lama, which French also borrowed as dalaï-lama: first written dalaé lama in 1692, it was given its modern spelling by the Académie in 1762.^[3] A figurative grand lama is found in Balzac (1835).^[8]

The learned vocabulary of Tibetan and Mongol Buddhism grew up around the word in the 18th and 19th centuries: lamiste (1773), later lamaïste (1845), lamaïsme (1816) and lamaserie “monastery of lamas” (1850).^[3]

Timeline

• 1629 – First record, in an account of the kingdom of Tibet.^[2]
• 1692 – Dalaé lama appears, later spelled dalaï-lama.^[3]
• 1762 – The Académie gives the spelling dalaï-lama.^[3]
• 1773 – Lamiste is recorded, replaced by lamaïste in 1845.^[3]
• 1816 – Lamaïsme appears.^[3]
• 1835 – Balzac uses grand lama figuratively.^[8]
• 1850 – Lamaserie appears.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Buddhist priest or monk in Tibet and among the Mongols.^[6][2][7]
2. A holy figure or high dignitary held to be the reincarnation of his predecessors.^[6]
3. Grand lama or dalaï-lama: the spiritual and temporal sovereign of Tibet.^[6][7]

Word family

• lamaserie
• lamaïsme
• lamaïste
• dalaï-lama