prayer beads

English

Buddhist prayer beads

Etymology

An interesting example of a compound that is diachronically pleonastic, although not synchronically so; the head by itself originally meant the relevant meaning (see bead), but as the head's meaning broadened by extension, the compound then became necessary to specify the relevant meaning by narrowing down.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

prayer beads pl (normally plural, singular prayer bead)

1. A string of beads used by members of various religions to count prayers, chants, or devotions.

   Hyponyms: rosary (sometimes synonymous), paternoster

   • 2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books, →ISBN:

     Suits didn't wear suits any more—they wore Tibetan prayer beads coiled around their wrists. But they slithered in a suitlike way.

Related terms

• prayer book

Translations

string of beads — see also rosary

• Arabic: مِسْبَحَة f (misbaḥa), سُبْحَة f (subḥa)
• Armenian: համրիչ (hy) (hamričʻ), տերողորմյա (hy) (teroġormya), թզբեխ (hy) (tʻzbex), թազբեհ (hy) (tʻazbeh)
• Azerbaijani: təsbeh,

  Cyrillic: тәсбеһ

• Bashkir: тиҫбе (tiśbe), тәсбих (təsbix)
• Belarusian: ружа́нец m (ružánjec)
• Bengali: তসবীহ (bn) (tosbiho)
• Bulgarian: броени́ца (bg) f (broeníca)
• Catalan: rosari (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 唸珠 / 念珠 (zh) (niànzhū)

• Czech: růženec (cs) m
• Dongxiang: tesibihha
• Dutch: rozenkrans (nl) m, gebedssnoer n
• Estonian: palvehelmed pl
• Finnish: rukousnauha (fi)
• French: chapelet (fr) m
• German: Gebetskette (de) f, Gebetsschnur f
• Greek: ροζάριο (el) n (rozário), ροδάριο (el) n (rodário)
• Hausa: càr̃bī m
• Hindi: माला (hi) (mālā), तसबीह (hi) (tasbīh), जपनी (hi) (japnī)
• Irish: paidrín m
• Italian: rosario (it) m
• Japanese: 念珠 (ねんじゅ, nenju), 数珠 (ja) (じゅず, juzu)
• Kalmyk: эркн (erkn)
• Korean: 묵주 (ko) (mukju), 염주 (yeomju)
• Macedonian: бројаница f (brojanica)
• Mongolian: эрхи (erxi)
• Persian: تسبیح (fa) (tasbih), رزاری (rozâri), بازیج (bāzij)
• Polish: różaniec (pl) m, sznur modlitewny m
• Portuguese: terço (pt) m, rosário (pt) m
• Romanian: mătănii (ro) f pl, rozariu (ro) n
• Russian: чётки (ru) f pl (čótki)
• Sanskrit: माला (sa) f (mālā)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бројаница f, теспих m, круница f

  Latin: brojanica (sh) f, tespih (sh) m, krȕnica (sh) f

• Slovak: ruženec m
• Slovene: rožni venec (sl) m
• Spanish: rosario (es) m
• Tagalog: rosaryo
• Thai: ปัด (th) (bpàt), ประคำ (th) (bprà-kam)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: tespih (tr)
• Ukrainian: чо́тки f pl (čótky)
• Urdu: تسبیح (tasbīh)
• Vietnamese: tràng hạt (vi)

Further reading

• prayer beads on Wikipedia.Wikipedia