생멸

Korean

Etymology

Sino-Korean word from 生滅, from 生 (“emergence”) + 滅 (“destruction”).

Pronunciation

(SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [sʰɛŋmjʌ̹ɭ] ~ [sʰe̞ŋmjʌ̹ɭ]
Phonetic hangul: [생멸/셍멸]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization^?	saengmyeol
Revised Romanization (translit.)^?	saengmyeol
McCune–Reischauer^?	saengmyŏl
Yale Romanization^?	sayngmyel

Noun

생멸 • (saengmyeol) (hanja 生滅)

(Buddhism or literary) birth and death; appearance and disappearance; production and annihilation
삼라만상 은 마음 의 허깨비 라 생멸만 을 일삼고 불변치 못 하니라.
Samnamansan-g'eun ma'eum-ui heokkaebira saengmyeol-man-eul ilsamgo bulbyeonchi mot hanira.
As all created things are illusions of the mind, they merely appear and are destroyed; they cannot remain constant.
- 2001, 홍사만 [hongsaman], “어휘 생태계의 역학적 현상 [eohwi saengtaegyeui yeokhakjeok hyeonsang]”, in 새국어생활 [saegugeosaenghwal]‎^[1], volume 11, number 4, National Institute of the Korean Language, pages 110—119:
  동음 경쟁 이나 유의 경쟁 에서 강자가 살아 남고, 약자 가 도태되어 퇴화하는 것 은 자연 의 철리이다. 어휘 들 의 생멸은 이 처럼 숙명적인 충돌 과 경쟁 의 결과 얻어 지는 산물 이 라고 할 수 있다.
  Dong'eum gyeongjaen-g'ina yuui gyeongjaen-g'eseo gangja-ga sara namgo, yakja-ga dotaedoeeo toehwahaneun geos-eun jayeon-ui cheolli-ida. Eohwi-deur-ui saengmyeor-eun icheoreom sungmyeongjeog-in chungdol-gwa gyeongjaen-g'ui gyeolgwa eodeojineun sanmur-i-rago hal su itda.
  It is a profound principle of nature that the strong survive, and the weak are displaced and die away, in competitions [between words in a language] of homophony or synonymy. The appearance and disappearance of words may be said to be the outcome of such inescapable conflicts and competition.

Derived terms

생멸(生滅)하다 (saengmyeolhada, “to be born and die; to appear and disappear”)
생멸심(生滅心) (saengmyeolsim, “variable, shifting mind of unenlightened beings (Buddhism)”)