koan

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

English

WOTD – 23 September 2010

Alternative forms

• kōan

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

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.

Translations

zen story

• Chinese:

  Hokkien: 公案 (kong-àn)

  Mandarin: 公案 (zh) (gōng'àn)

• Finnish: kōan (fi)
• German: Koan (de) n
• Hungarian: koan (hu)
• Irish: cóán m
• Japanese: 公案 (ja) (こうあん, kōan)
• Korean: 화두 (ko) (hwadu)
• Russian: коа́н (ru) m (koán)
• Vietnamese: công án

riddle without solution

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: aporia, kōan (fi)
• French: aporie (fr)
• Hungarian: koan (hu)
• Italian: aporia (it)
• Spanish: aporía (es)

Anagrams

• KAON, Kano, Kona, NKAO, kano, kaon

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ko.an/

Noun

koan m (plural koan)

1. koan

Further reading

• “koan”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• kaon

Hungarian

Alternative forms

• kóan

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

koan (plural koanok)

1. koan

Declension

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

Noun

koan (nominative plural koans)

1. shell, seashell

Declension

declension of koan

	singular	plural
nominative	koan	koans
genitive	koana	koanas
dative	koane	koanes
accusative	koani	koanis
vocative 1	o koan!	o koans!
predicative 2	koanu	koanus

• ¹ status as a case is disputed
• ² in later, non-classical Volapük only

Derived terms

• koanaf (“shellfish”)

Yola

Noun

koan

1. Alternative form of cooan

References

• 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