Victor Mair of Language Log explored the origins of the word “zen”. Unfortunately, I can’t really quote much of the blog post as it is mostly made up of quotes. But here are a few snippets:
“Zen” entered the English lexicon already by 1727.
It is fascinating to contemplate that “Zen” and “semantics” are ultimately cognate.
It’s a shame that white Westerners tried to bastardise what zen really means but what are we to expect?
Chinese and Japanese culture related: Vini Naso’s “The Masks We Wear” and a blog post about Japanese geishas and kimonos