蓬莱

蓬萊

Péng lái

Meanings

CC-CEDICT

Péng lái

1.(Chinese mythology) Penglai, one of three fabled islands in the Bohai sea, where immortals were said to live; (by extension) fairyland
2.see 蓬莱区[Péng lái Qū]

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Wiktionary

1.Penglai (a mythical eastern isle of immortals)
2.fairyland
3.Penglai (a district, former county, and former county-level city of Yantai, Shandong, China)
4.wilderness

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Etymology

Uncertain. It bears striking resemblance to a Southeast Asian word for “sea”. Compare Burmese ပင်လယ် (panglai, “sea; ocean”), Shan ပၢင်ႇလၢႆႇ (pàang làai, “sea; ocean”), Jingpho pang lai (“sea”), S'gaw Karen ပီၣ်လဲၣ် (paẁ leh̀, “sea”). These seem to be borrowings, possibly from a Mon-Khmer language; compare Proto-Mon-Khmer *d[n]liʔ (“sea”), whence Old Khmer danle, danley (“large river; lake; sea”) > Khmer ទន្លេ (tɔɔtŭənlei, “river”), Thai ทะเล (tá-lee, “sea”) (Schuessler, 2007). Alternatively, it may be a transcription of an earlier Austroasiatic name; cf. 萊國／莱国 (Láiguó, “Lai”), an ancient Dongyi tribe, where 萊／莱 (lái) has been argued to transcribe a native word for "mountain" or "wilderness". The latter interpretation was mentioned in the Classical Chinese text Yue Jue Shu (越絕書 [Eastern Han]) and discussed by Zhengzhang (1999).

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