hungry ghost and preta

[Benjamin Barrett]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preta says the Chinese (餓鬼) is not a literal translation of preta, but that "hungry ghost" is a calque of the Chinese. BB

On Jul 28, 2014, at 4:47 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM> wrote:

> I don't see this term in the AHD or on the Oxford Dictionary site, but =
> Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_ghost) and Wiktionary =
> (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hungry_ghost) both have entries with =
> this as a translation of =E9=A4=93=E9=AC=BC (=C3=A8gu=C7=90 in Mandarin, =
> gaki in Japanese, =EC=95=84=EA=B7=80/agwi in Korean).
> 
> The earliest relevant hit I see is 1893 (http://bit.ly/UypLsz) in =
> "Outlines of the Mah=C3=A2y=C3=A2na as Taught by Buddha" by Shint=C5=8D =
> Kuroda, and more hits start appearing in Google hits at the beginning of =
> the twentieth century. At about 1961, the word takes off according to =
> Google's Ngram Viewer (http://bit.ly/1uBoKjS), peaking in 1995 at =
> 0.0000025916%.
> 
> An earlier, unrelated hit occurs in "The Origins and History of =
> Missions..." by Rev. Thomas Smith (http://bit.ly/1mWqnie).
> 
> The earliest hit I see for preta (also in Wikipedia =
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preta)/Wiktionary =
> (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hungry_ghost) but not Oxford/AHD), which =
> is perhaps the calque-source of =E9=A4=93=E9=AC=BC, is 1888 in "Handbook =
> of Chinese Buddhism Being Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary" by Ernest J. =
> Eitel (http://bit.ly/1nUhISa).

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