masc nom sg of bhikkhu (noun); masc voc sg of bhikkhu (noun)
Etymology. Sanskrit bhikṣu, agent-noun in -u from the desiderative stem bhikṣ- 'wish to share in, seek a portion' (Pali bhikkhati 'to beg, ask for alms'), itself a desiderative of the root bhaj- 'to divide, share, apportion' (cf. bhāga 'share', bhoga 'enjoyment'); cognate with bhikkhā 'alms, begged food' and bhikkhunī 'nun'. The canon plays on the sense 'one who begs': 'Na tena bhikkhu hoti yāvatā bhikkhate pare' — 'One is not a bhikkhu merely because he begs from others' (Dhp 266), the true bhikkhu being he who has taken up the whole dhamma. Vinaya offers a string of interpretive derivations (bhikkhako ti bhikkhu, bhikkhācariyaṃ ajjhupagato ti bhikkhu, bhinnapaṭadharo ti bhikkhu — Vin III 24; Vibh 245), while the commentaries add the edifying (non-historical) gloss bhinna-kilesattā bhikkhu, 'a bhikkhu because his defilements are broken' (cf. Vism I 7). Standard renderings: 'monk', 'bhikkhu', formerly 'almsman' (PTS). In the suttas the word regularly opens instruction — 'idha, bhikkhave, bhikkhu…', 'here, monks, a monk…' — where it denotes any earnest disciple undertaking the training, not necessarily a formally ordained one.
Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.
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