Have you ever called an unstoppable force a “juggernaut”? Described a calmly focused individual as “zen”? These and other loan words comprise a sizeable chunk of our modern English vocabulary. Many describe religious people, objects, or beliefs from outside Western cultures. We often don’t consider their original meanings and fascinating histories. Yet these loan words can experience drastic transformations from their initial spiritual contexts.
Everything Is Not Zen
Are you feeling “zen” today? If you’re like a lot of people, probably not. Perhaps the “internal screaming” meme describes your feelings in the face of hectic schedules or major life challenges. While you’re pondering your state of mind, consider that “Zen” is one example of how loan words become divorced from their original meanings.
The Cambridge Dictionary lists two definitions for “Zen.” The first refers to Zen Buddhism, but the second is an adjective that means “relaxed and not worrying about things that you cannot change.” Zen is a Japanese word, as Online Etymology Dictionary explains, derived from the Chinese “ch’an” and the Sanskrit “dhyana” meaning “thought” or “meditation.” As a school of Mahayana Buddhism, Zen stresses meditation with an observant and open mind to directly perceive truth for oneself. Houn Jiyu-Kennett, a British-born Zen master, brought its practice to the West in the early 1970s.
Would you describe green tea, an MP3 player, or an automobile as “zen”? Commenters in the r/Buddhism subreddit wrestled with that very question. Some were amused, while others contended that it’s been commercialized and misused. Patheos blogger James Myoun Ford remarks that this is common among Zen Buddhism practitioners in the United States. Ford sees awakening as an essential Zen component that invites many different approaches. Yet is “Zen” expansive enough to handle how it’s used in the English language? That’s a question you’ll have to answer for yourself.
Make Way for the Juggernaut
Can you stop a juggernaut? Maybe, if you’re Professor Charles Xavier. But if you’re at the Ratha Yatra festival in the eastern Indian city of Puri? Probably not. Surrounded by throngs of devotees, you’ll see a giant chariot carrying Lord Jagannath, an avatar of Vishnu. The smiling figure with large round eyes is covered by a crimson and yellow cloth canopy. This behemoth processes on 16 huge wooden wheels, standing 45 feet high and weighing up to 400 tons.
You can see that it’s not a huge leap from Jagannath to “juggernaut.” How did this linguistic transformation happen? Oxford University Press’s Michael J. Altman explains that the original Sanskrit means “Lord of the Universe.” The Anglicized version first appeared in 1321, but it didn’t become widespread until the early 1800s. Reverend Claudius Buchanan called the chariot “Juggernaut” in his 1811 book “Christian Researches in Asia.” Viewing it as pernicious idolatry, he also claimed that the chariot crushed devotees who’d thrown themselves under its wheels.
Journalist Subhamoy Das suggests that any deaths from the Jagannath chariot were accidental. With the massive crowds and commotion at the annual festival, some people may have been pushed in its path. Yet by the 1930s, “juggernaut” had lost its original religious connotation. It’s now used to describe any powerful and unstoppable forces, including fictional characters, media blitzes, and oppressive institutions.
The Amazing Depth of Ordinary Words
The English language is constantly growing and changing. New words enter our lexicons every year as others slowly fall out of usage. Words like “yeet” and “bougie” may puzzle some modern speakers, but imagine how “juggernaut” sounded to listeners two centuries ago or “Zen” to people hearing it for the first time in the 1970s. When loan words like these come from religious practices, it’s easy to forget their sacred aspects as they become ordinary parts of speech.