The publication of an English-Pali Dictionary is a notable event in the life of the Pali Text Society; and when our friend of long-standing offered this work to us we gladly accepted the privilege of publishing it in the conviction that, although the compiler had had to face a task entailing several peculiar difficulties, he was extremely well qualified to do so, having devoted his life to a close and deep study of Pali. It is now thirty years since the Pali Text Society issued its Pali-English Dictionary; this has been twice reprinted to meet a constantly growing demand for the aids and means to study Pali and its sacred literature. The time is already ripe to add an English-Pali Dictionary to the Society's song list of publications, and indeed the need for one has been felt for some years. For, although the Venerable Widurupola Piyatissa. There's English-Pali Dictionary has much to commend it, its usefulness is reduced for the English-speaking world by the Pali words being given in Sinhalese script. A publication issued by the Pali Text Society must, on the other hand, follow one of the original objects of the Society: that publications be in Roman script.
That this present English-Pali Dictionary has been compiled by the Venerable A. P. Buddhadatta Mahathera, Agga-mahapandita will guarantee the scholarly way in which it has been handled. For he is a grammarian and well known as the author of several Pali grammars written both in Sinhalese and in English; moreover he has edited Sammoha-vinodani, Saddhammapajjotika (3 vols.), Buddhadatta's Manuals (2 vol.) for the Pali Text Society, as well as other Pali, works published in the Society's Journals.
A Dictionary of the entire English language, each word with a Pali equivalent, would perhaps be impossible; and it would certainly not have been desirable since any such compilation would attain inordinate length, whereas what is more needed is the presentation of as much useful and well-chosen material possible in one volume of a manageable size. It would be impossible, for Pali could not be expected to produce words, for example for plants and birds of a non-Asian habitat. So there are no entries for such things as ' dandelion', 'buttercup', 'honey-suckle' or ', blackbird " so familiar to English people. Tern ' does appear, although not as a bird but as a set of three, a triplet. Hawk', kite' and, owl ' are however included as well as other birds known also in Asia. Nor have these escaped the notice of the compilers of the Pali Canon and Commentaries, where they are not infrequently referred to. Pali equivalents were therefore already at hand.
But if Pali cannot coin all words, the Venerable Buddhadatta has been indefatigable in coining a great many, particularly perhaps for current English anatomical, medical, and botanical terms, for other scientific words, and for modern inventions, such as ' emplane' (verb), 'the telephone' and 'telegram', and for which Pali proves very well adapted. This is not altogether surprising for, although it has long been a static language, it yet covers a wide range of thought, enriched by hundreds of narrative .stories on a variety of topics and by a multitude of similes drawn from everyday life and things.
Another class of omissions that had to be made concerns certain, but not all, words that are narrow" ' ecclesiastical' in usage or, classical' in reference, such as ' Chasuble' and' Doric ' (architecture), and which fall outside the scope of Pali thought.
On the other hand, words are included that would not normally find a place in a purely occidental Dictionary. We may give as examples ' Tooth-relic' and 'false view', words which, in their technical sense, are not of the common stock of European thought, but they have a decided technical meaning in Buddhist literature. As it is hoped that one of the main uses of this Dictionary will be to provide a further instrument for the study of Pali literature and language, words such as these clearly could not have been omitted; they are part of the very fabric out of which this literature and language are built.
All first attempts must in time be superseded, as the Venerable Buddhadatta has intimated in his Preface. But that time will not come immediately. For even though everyone may not agree with all the Pali equivalents given, whether they have been freshly coined or composed from words already in Pali usage, I yet believe that the great majority of these equivalents will be found to be precise and apt. I also believe that this English-Pali Dictionary, which I hope will meet with every success, is, both on account of its intrinsic value and because it is breaking new ground, an important and welcome contribution to the field of Pali studies.
