LL-L 'Etymology' 2006.11.08 (03) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 08 November 2006 * Volume 03
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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Etymology

Dear Lowlanders,

I've been wondering about the origin of the word "cassock".

Generally speaking, the word denotes a cloak or coat worn either by an old-time
soldier or by a priest or monk.

In my opinion, the _Oxford English Dictionary_ provides the most comprehensive
set of etymological notes:

<quote>

[a. F. _casaque_ 'a cassocke, mandilion, long coat', 16th c. in Littré, (corresp.
to Sp. and Pg. _casaca_ 'a souldiers cassocke, a frock, a horsemans coat',
Minsheu, It. _casacca_ 'a frocke, a horse-mans cote, a long cote; also a
habitation or dwelling' Florio). The military use is the original; the
ecclesiastical use appears to have arisen in English, in the 17th century. 

  If the It. is the original, and _casacca_ 'cassock' the same word as casacca
'dwelling' (see above), then it is a deriv. of casa house (as if 'a garment that
covers like a house': cf. CASULE, CHASUBLE); but the identification is doubtful.
The _Dict. de Trevoux_ suggests that _casaque_ is a variant of _Cosaque_ Cossack,
from whom the military cassock might take its name. Lagarde (_Götting. Gelehrte
Anzeiger_, 15 Apr. 1887, 238) maintains that F. _casaque_ is a back-formation
from _casaquin_ (by incorrectly viewing the latter as a dimin. form), and that
casaquin, It. casacchino, was a corruption of Arab. _kazāγand_, ad. Pers.
_kazhāγand_, a padded jerkin, or acton, f. _kazh_ = _kaj_ raw silk, silk floss
+_āγand_ stuffed. The word _kasagân_ actually occurs in MHG. as 'riding-cloak'
('reitrock' Schade), and _gasygan_ in OF. as padded jerkin or vest' (Godef.), but
the relation of these to _casaquin_ and _casaque_ has yet to be settled.] 

</quote>

Now I am hoping if we can take this any further, considering that there seems to
be an Asian link.

I have long been wondering if it is coincidental that the robe or cassock of a
Buddhist monk has the Chinese name 袈裟, pronounced in Modern Mandarin as
_jiāshā_ (chia1-sha1) and in Modern Cantonese and Hakka as _gāsā_ (ka1-sa1).  We
know that Modern Mandarin _jia_ syllables all come from earlier _ka_.  In Middle
Chinese (which was spoken when Buddhism began to truly florish in China), the
word for a Buddhist robe or cassock would be reconstructed as something like
*_kaşa(y)_ or *_käşä(y)_.  (Baxter has *_kæsræ_. The second syllable begins with
a retroflex "s" in all cases, as it does in many Modern Mandarin dialects.) 

The two Chinese characters of this word look very much as though they were made
up "phonetically" from foreign sounds, and they do not seem to have been used in
pre-Buddhist times.  They use common characters (åŠ  "add" and æ²™ "sand") as
"phonetics", and each uses the "radical" (category) character è¡£ "garment"
underneath each "phonetic."  The narrow, specialized meaning of these characters
and the fact that they rarely, if ever, occur independently from each other leads
one to suspect that we are dealing with a loanword that came to be adopted with
or soon after the advent of Buddhism in China, namely sometime during the early
first millennium CE when Middle Chinese was spoken.  Buddhism arrived from India
via Central Asia, though many Indian Buddhists went all the way into China as
teachers and translators.

So let's turn toward India where Sanskrit and its derivative Pali had been used
as the linguae francae of Buddhism.  Let's also remember that India exercised
direct and indirect influences on the surrounding areas, such as the Himalayan
region, Central Asia, Iranian-speaking regions and, via the south, most parts of
Southeast Asia.

In Sanskrit there is a splendid candidate: कषय _kaşāya_ (with a retroflex "s",
the final _-a_ being deleted in derivative language varieties, thus कषय _kaşāy_).
 The meaning of this word is 'red', 'dull red', 'yellowish red (as of the garment
of a Buddhist _bhikshu_)' (though the origin is 'astringency', supposedly in
reference to a plant whose dye is used).  (A बिक्षु _bikşu_ is a mendicant monk.) 
So if someone wore कषय _kaşāya_, he or she wore a Buddhist robe.

I believe that this dye (Sanskrit कषय _kaşāya varņa_, Pali _kasāya rasa_ or _kasi
vaņņa_) was very commonly used and cloth dyed with it was relatively inexpensive,
hence the use for monks' and nun's clothing as a symbol of humility in
conjunction with the brownish red as a symbol of dust and earth.

Connection or coincidence?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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