# Sanskrit: Dream



## hjordisk

The Old English word dream, meant 'joy' until the Vikings around 800 imparted its current meaning, by the Old Norse cognate “draumr” meaning "vision, illusion". Do anyone know the etymology of the word dream, or the Sanskrit word that led to this ?


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## tamah

The Sanskrit word for 
dream = स्वप्न (swapna)
dream vision = स्वप्नदर्शन (swapnadarshan)


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## hjordisk

It seems as if the presence of dream 'joy, mirth, music,' had caused 'dream' to be avoided (at least in literature) and swefn, or as in Norwegian, søvn, lit. 'sleep,' to be substituted. Søvn seems more similar, but dream, in the sense "sequence of sensations passing through a sleeping person's mind," is related to O.N. Draumr, and draugr "ghost, apparition"-do you also know the word for ghost ?


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## tamah

As far as Sanskrit goes, it has different words for 'sleep' and 'dream' and they cannot be substituted in anyway because dream is part of sleep (unless and until you are daydreaming).
The Sanskrit words for ghost are many but most common are 
भूत - bhoot 
पिशाच - pishach


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## Frank06

hjordisk said:


> The Old English word dream, meant 'joy' until the Vikings around 800 imparted its current meaning, by the Old Norse cognate “draumr” meaning "vision, illusion". Do anyone know the etymology of the word dream, or the Sanskrit word that led to this ?


Just a quick note: There is no Sanskrit word that led to this. In the history of English (or of the Germanic languages, to stick to this thread), Sanskrit didn't play a role.

Groetjes,

Frank


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## omlick

Frank06 said:


> Just a quick note: There is no Sanskrit word that led to this. In the history of English (or of the Germanic languages, to stick to this thread), Sanskrit didn't play a role.
> 
> Groetjes,
> 
> Frank


 
I was wondering where he got the idea that a Sanskrit word would lead to any word in the English language.  I don't know of any words that would have been derived from Sanskrit words in Old English, does anyone know of any?  I never heard of such a concept before.


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## hjordisk

from Wikipedia: Rigvedic Sanskrit as one of the oldest attestations of any Indo Iranian language,  and one of the earliest attested members of the , the Indo European family which includes English


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## berndf

hjordisk said:


> from Wikipedia: Rigvedic Sanskrit as one of the oldest attestations of any Indo Iranian language,  and one of the earliest attested members of the , the Indo European family which includes English


True, but Sanskrit is still a cousin and not an ancestor of English, though a considerably older one.


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## Frank06

Hi,


hjordisk said:


> from Wikipedia: Rigvedic Sanskrit as one of the oldest attestations of any Indo Iranian language, and one of the earliest attested members of the Indo European family which includes English


Okay, I see what you mean. But it doesn't really work that way.
Hittite inscriptions, for example, are significantly older, but that doesn't mean that all the other IE languages go back to Hittite.
(That Renfrew _does_ propose an Anatolian homeland for PIE has nothing to do with writing or inscriptions. He also talks about a period 5000 years prior to Hittite anyway. But let's forget about Renfrew.)
I think that the Wikipedia article on Proto-Indo-European is a good starting point to learn more about the relations between the various IE language groups or branches and about the history of the various individual IE languages.

Groetjes

Frank


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## elpoderoso

The Sanskrit word for 
dream = स्वप्न (swapna)

Any relation to the Spanish ''Sueño''?


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## Awwal12

> The Sanskrit word for
> dream = स्वप्न (swapna)
> 
> Any relation to the Spanish ''Sueño''?


A common Proto-Indo-European root, I suppose. At least if the Spanish word originated from Latin "somnus". The Russian word "son" (a dream, a sleep) shares the same Proto-Indo-European ancestor (through Proto-Slavic "*sъnъ").


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## Frank06

Hi,


Awwal12 said:


> A common Proto-Indo-European root, I suppose. At least if the Spanish word originated from Latin "somnus". The Russian word "son" (a dream, a sleep) shares the same Proto-Indo-European ancestor (through Proto-Slavic "*sъnъ").


The PIE root *swepǝ seems to be well represented in the IE languages.
Latin somnus, Old Indic svápna- go back to that PIE root. 

Groetjes,

Frank


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## koniecswiata

HI,
Just to add, there is also a lot of semantic connection between "sleep" and "dream", as in Spanish you can say "tengo sueño" to mean "I am sleepy", whereas it litterally would seem to mean "I have dream".  In Polish the adjective "senny"--which derives from the word "dream" (sen) means sleepy--not "dreamy".


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## Miguel Antonio

koniecswiata said:


> ...in Spanish you can say "tengo sueño" to mean "I am sleepy", whereas it litterally would seem to mean "I have dream".


I have a dream, in Spanish, is _tengo *un* sueño_.

For the record, Portuguese and Galician use different words for sleep (sleepiness rather): _sono _and dream: _sonho/soño_, although both derive from the same Latin word.


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## koniecswiata

Your quite right Miguel Antonio, but litterally, as I said it is "I have dream" not "I have a dream".  A good point for not making litteral translation anyway.


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## er targyn

Is dream related to Latin dormire and Russian dremat' ?


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## Frank06

er targyn said:


> Is dream related to Latin dormire and Russian dremat' ?


There doesn't seem to be any relation between dream and dormire/dremat.
Dream goes back to PIE *dhreugh- (PGm. suffixed *drau(g)maz).
Dormire is related to PIE *drem- (Watkins) or *dre- (Pokorny).

Frank


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## shawnee

Quote:The Sanskrit word for dream = स्वप्न (swapna)

I also see a similarity with the Greek hypnos - sleep.


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## OBrasilo

hjordisk said:
			
		

> The Old English word dream, meant 'joy' until  the Vikings around 800 imparted its current meaning, by the Old Norse  cognate “draumr” meaning "vision, illusion".



This can't be possible. In German, which is a West Germanic language, just like English, there's the word _Traum_, which is cognate with, and means, _dream_.


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## Awwal12

According to the Webster Dictionary, "drēam" really meant "joy, noise". The presence of German cognate still doesn't mean that in Old English this word had its current meaning. 

For example, Polish (West Slavic) "język", Bulgarian (South Slavic) "език" and Russian (East Slavic) "язык" have the same meaning (language + tongue), but in other East Slavic languages "язык"/"язик" means only "tongue" - i.e. there is more similarity between languages of different branches than between ones of the same branch, when we speak about this word. Belonging to the same branch proves nothing by itself.


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## berndf

OBrasilo said:


> This can't be possible. In German, which is a West Germanic language, just like English, there's the word _Traum_, which is cognate with, and means, _dream_.


The word is attested in Old Saxon (drom) in both meanings (_joy _or_ music_ and _dream_) but the meaning _dream_ is not attested in OE any more (which doesn't mean it didn't exist; OE sources aren't that ample) but is attested in ME. According to the OED the two senses are generally assumed to be of different origin. Grimm and Kluge regard _dream_ in the sense of dream (German _Traum_) as related to German _trügen=to deceive_.


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## Maroseika

According to the Ducth etymological dict. this word (Ducth droom) originate from the word meaning "festival < noise"  < *dhreu - to buzz, to drone

http://books.google.ru/books?id=9_X...ymologisch woordenboek + Jan de Vries&f=false
p. 139


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## berndf

Maroseika said:


> According to the Ducth etymological dict. this word (Ducth droom) originate from the word meaning "festival < noise"  < *dhreu - to buzz, to drone
> 
> http://books.google.ru/books?id=9_X...ymologisch woordenboek + Jan de Vries&f=false
> p. 139


This dictionary describes both derivations, the one you mentioned but also the one relating it to the notion of deception (_*drauma 'droogbeeld'_) and concludes that both explanations have their difficulties (_Beide verklaringen leveren moeilijkheden_).


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## Maroseika

Thanks, now I see I was not attentive enough, to say nothing of my zero knowledge of Dutch.


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