མེད

Tibetan

Etymology

Various theories exist:

• From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-miːt (“to extinguish; to shut abruptly; to wink; to blink; to die”). Cognate with Chinese 滅 (OC *med, “to perish; to be destroyed; to destroy”) (Benedict, 1972).
• Contraction of མི (mi, “not”) + ཡོད (yod, “to be”) (Jäschke, 1881).
• Contraction of མི (mi, “not”) + རེད (red, “to be; to be ready”). The latter is related to སྲིད་པ (srid pa, “existence; state of being; living”) (Matisoff, 1985).

Pronunciation

• Old Tibetan: /*met/
• Lhasa: /mɛː˩˧˨/, /me˩˧˨/
• Bla-Brang: /mə/

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• Old Tibetan:
  • IPA^(key): /*met/ (reconstructed)
• Ü-Tsang
  • Tibetan pinyin: mae^w, me^w
  • (Lhasa) IPA^(key): /mɛː˩˧˨/, /me˩˧˨/
• Amdo
  • (Bla-Brang) IPA^(key): /mə/

Verb

མེད • (med) (nominal form མེད་པ)

1. to be not, to exist not

   རྒྱ་ལ་མེད་པའི་ཡི་གེ་དྲུག ― rgya la med pa'i yi ge drug ― six letters not found in Sanskrit

Conjugation

Conjugation of མེད

Tense/Mood	Form	Wylie
Present	མེད	med
Future	མེད	med
Past	མེད	med
Imperative	མེད	med

Derived terms

• ཆར་མེད (char med, “drought; literally, rainlessness”)
• རིས་མེད (ris med)