लिङ्ग

Hindi

Pronunciation

• (Delhi Hindi) IPA^(key): /lɪŋɡ/,

Noun

लिङ्ग • (liṅg) m (Urdu spelling لِن٘گ)

1. alternative spelling of लिंग (liṅg)

Declension

Pali

Alternative forms

Noun

लिङ्ग n

1. Devanagari script form of liṅga (“sign”)

Declension

Sanskrit

Alternative scripts

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-Iranian *lingás ~ *ringás (“mark, sign, token”). Cognate with Avestan -𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬧𐬔𐬀 (-iriṇga) (attested in 𐬵𐬀𐬞𐬙𐬋𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬧𐬔𐬀 (haptōⁱriṇga, “the constellation Ursa Major”, literally “having seven signs”)), Sogdian (pryng /⁠paring⁠/, “damask textile with markings on it”) (< *upa-ringa-).

Pronunciation

• (Vedic) IPA^(key): /liŋ.ɡɐ/
• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈl̪iŋ.ɡɐ/

Noun

लिङ्ग • (liṅga) stem, n

1. mark, spot, sign, token, badge, form, emblem, characteristic, representation
   • c. 1000 BCE, Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad
   • c. 700 CE – 900 CE, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 3.5.32:

     तामसो भूतसूक्ष्मादिर्यतः खं लिङ्ग्आत्मनः॥

     tāmaso bhūtasūkṣmādiryataḥ khaṃ liṅgātmanaḥ.

     The sky is a product of sound, and sound is the transformation of egoistic ignorance. In other words, the sky is the symbolic representation of the Supreme Soul.

   • c. 700 CE – 900 CE, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.20.33:

     यत्तत्कर्ममयं लिङ्गं ब्रह्मलिङ्गं जनोऽर्चयेत्। एकान्तमद्वयं शान्तं तस्मै भगवते नम इति॥

     yattatkarmamayaṃ liṅgaṃ brahmaliṅgaṃ janoʼrcayet. ekāntamadvayaṃ śāntaṃ tasmai bhagavate nama iti.

     the form resulting from karma; and a person should worship that form of the Supreme Brahman. We pay our respects to the lord who is absolute and perfect, peaceful, and nondifferent .

   1. (anatomy) the sign of gender or sex; organ of generation; genital
      • c. 700 CE – 900 CE, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.3.53:

        यशोदा नन्दपत्नी च जातं परमबुध्यत। न तल्लिङ्गं परिश्रान्ता निद्रयापगतस्मृतिः॥

        yaśodā nandapatnī ca jātaṃ paramabudhyata. na talliṅgaṃ pariśrāntā nidrayāpagatasmṛtiḥ.

        Exhausted by the labor of childbirth, Yaśodā, the wife of Nanda, was overwhelmed with sleep and unable to understand what was the gender of the child born to her.

      1. the male organ or phallus; penis
         • c. 200 BCE – 200 CE, Manusmṛti

         Synonyms: see Thesaurus:शिश्न

         1. (Shaivism) lingam; (especially) the phallus of Shiva worshipped in the form of a stone or marble column which generally rises out of a yoni

            Synonym: शिवलिङ्ग (śivaliṅga)

2. (grammar) gender
3. any assumed or false badge or mark, guise, disguise
4. proof, evidence
5. sign of guilt, corpus delicti
6. the image of a god, an idol
7. (logic) the invariable mark which proves the existence of anything in an object (as in the proposition ‘there is fire because there is smoke’, smoke is the liṅga)
8. inference, conclusion, reason
9. symptom, mark of disease

Declension

Descendants

• Pali: liṅga
  • → Thai: ลึงค์ (lʉng), ลิงค์ (ling) (or borrowed directly from Sanskrit)
• Prakrit: 𑀮𑀺𑀁𑀕 (liṃga) (see there for further descendants)
• → English: lingam
• → Kannada: ಲಿಂಗ (liṅga)
• → Khmer: លិង្គ (lɨng)

Further reading

• Monier Williams (1899) “लिङ्ग”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, , new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 901, column 3.
• Apte, Vaman Shivram (1890) “लिङ्गम्”, in The practical Sanskrit-English dictionary, Poona: Prasad Prakashan
• Hellwig, Oliver (2010-2024) “liṅga”, in DCS - The Digital Corpus of Sanskrit, Berlin, Germany.
• Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1893) “लिङ्ग”, in A practical Sanskrit dictionary with transliteration, accentuation, and etymological analysis throughout, London: Oxford University Press
• Turner, Ralph Lilley (1969–1985) “liṅga”, in A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, London: Oxford University Press
• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003) The Dravidian Languages (Cambridge Language Surveys), Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 24.