koan

Where does the word "koan" come from? It comes from Chinese gōng'àn, passing through Japanese before entering English (early 1900s).

Koan’s story begins in Chinese: gōng'àn meant “a public legal case, used as a teaching riddle.” Originally meant a legal case record used in Chan Buddhist teaching debates. By medieval, the word had taken hold in Japanese as kōan. Chinese 'public case', a legal term; Zen masters used such cases, like 'the sound of one hand clapping'. It reached English by early 1900s as koan. Entered English through D. T. Suzuki's writings introducing Zen to the West. Today, koan means a paradoxical question or riddle used in Zen Buddhism to provoke sudden insight.

1. Stage 1 · Chinese · medieval gōng'àn "a public legal case, used as a teaching riddle", originally meant a legal case record used in Chan Buddhist teaching debates.
2. Stage 2 · Japanese · medieval kōan "a paradoxical question used to provoke insight", Chinese 'public case', a legal term; Zen masters used such cases, like 'the sound of one hand clapping'.
3. Stage 3 · English · early 1900s koan "an unanswerable riddle used in Zen meditation practice", entered English through D. T. Suzuki's writings introducing Zen to the West.