Hinayana Buddhism
- noun
- Slur
:
[término despectivo para el budismo Theravada]
- The term Hinayana Buddhism is rarely used today because of its derogatory connotations.
Examples
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Some older Western texts refer to Theravada Buddhism as Hinayana Buddhism, though this is now considered disrespectful.
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Scholars discourage the use of Hinayana Buddhism in academic discourse due to its pejorative origin.
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Many scholars have criticized the term Hinayana Buddhism as outdated.
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Some practitioners prefer to avoid using Hinayana Buddhism altogether.
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Scholars discourage the use of Hinayana Buddhism in academic discourse due to its pejorative origin.
-
Some older Western texts refer to Theravada Buddhism as Hinayana Buddhism, though this is now considered disrespectful.
-
The term Hinayana Buddhism is rarely used today because of its derogatory connotations.
Synonyms
An older name for a form of Buddhism that focuses on personal enlightenment and strict rules for monks
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'Hinayana' (an offensive, pejorative label for early/conservative Buddhism) combined with 'Buddhism' (the religion) yields the meaning 'the form/branch of Buddhism labeled Hinayana' including its dated/pejorative nuance. Thus a B1 learner who already knows the meanings of both constituents could infer the overall sense, though note that 'Hinayana' is specialized and culturally sensitive and may be unfamiliar in practice.
Etymology
Hinayana Buddhism comes from two words used by Mahayana Buddhists: hina meaning 'lesser' and yana meaning 'vehicle' or 'path'. They called other schools a 'lesser vehicle', so the phrase sounds insulting and is not used today for Theravada Buddhism.
