koan

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See also: kōan, koàn, kôaⁿ, koân, and kóaⁿ

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Japanese 公案 (kōan), which was from Chinese 公案 (gōng'àn, “official business”).

Pronunciation

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  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkəʊ.ɑːn/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈkoʊ.ɑn/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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koan (plural koans)

  1. (Zen Buddhism) A story about a Zen master and his student, sometimes like a riddle, other times like a fable, which has become an object of Zen study, and which, when meditated upon, may unlock mechanisms in the Zen student’s mind leading to satori.
    • 1977, Thomas Hoover, chapter 1, in Zen Culture[2], →ISBN:
      Zen, with its absurdist koan, laughs at life much the way the Marx brothers did. What exactly can you make of a philosophical system whose teacher answers the question, "How do you see things so clearly?" with the seeming one-liner, "I close my eyes"?
  2. A riddle with no solution, used to provoke reflection on the inadequacy of logical reasoning, and to lead to enlightenment.
    • 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow:
      Gibberish. Or else a koan that Achtfaden isn’t equipped to master, a transcendent puzzle that could lead him to some moment of light.
    • 2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age, paperback edition, Fourth Estate, page 303:
      As always the koan “Why, Why am I here, why here” begins in her head, but she beats it back like a housewife with a broom.
  3. A therapy technique used by Traditional Chinese medicinal physicians or medical practitioners to break a presenting patients habitual pattern of thinking that has been diagnosed as the primary cause of an illness or disease.[1]

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ chapter 404, in process.ogleschool.edu[1], 2023 September 20 (last accessed)

Anagrams

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French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Japanese 公案 (kōan), from Literary Chinese 公案 (gōng'àn, literally public case).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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koan m (plural koan)

  1. koan

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Hungarian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From English koan, from Japanese 公案 (kōan), from Literary Chinese 公案 (gōng'àn) (literally, "public case").

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): [ˈkoːɒn]
  • Hyphenation: ko‧an
  • Rhymes: -ɒn

Noun

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koan (plural koanok)

  1. koan

Declension

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Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
singular plural
nominative koan koanok
accusative koant koanokat
dative koannak koanoknak
instrumental koannal koanokkal
causal-final koanért koanokért
translative koanná koanokká
terminative koanig koanokig
essive-formal koanként koanokként
essive-modal
inessive koanban koanokban
superessive koanon koanokon
adessive koannál koanoknál
illative koanba koanokba
sublative koanra koanokra
allative koanhoz koanokhoz
elative koanból koanokból
delative koanról koanokról
ablative koantól koanoktól
non-attributive
possessive - singular
koané koanoké
non-attributive
possessive - plural
koanéi koanokéi
Possessive forms of koan
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. koanom koanjaim
2nd person sing. koanod koanjaid
3rd person sing. koanja koanjai
1st person plural koanunk koanjaink
2nd person plural koanotok koanjaitok
3rd person plural koanjuk koanjaik

Volapük

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Noun

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koan (nominative plural koans)

  1. shell, seashell

Declension

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Derived terms

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Yola

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Noun

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koan

  1. Alternative form of cooan

References

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  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 51