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Origin and history of nirvana

nirvana(n.)

also Nirvana, Nirwana, 1836, in Buddhism, "the condition of a Buddha," from Sanskrit nirvana-s "extinction, disappearance" (of the individual soul into the universal), literally "to blow out, a blowing out" ("not transitively, but as a fire ceases to draw" [Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, "Hinduism and Buddhism," 1943]; a literal Latinization would be de-spiration), from nis-, nir- "out" + va- "to blow" (from PIE root *we- "to blow"). Figurative sense of "perfect bliss" is from 1895.

also from 1836

Entries linking to nirvana

*we-

wē-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to blow." 

It might form all or part of: Nirvana; vent; ventilate; weather; wind (n.1) "air in motion;" window; wing.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit va-, Greek aemi-, Gothic waian, Old English wawan, Old High German wajan, German wehen, Old Church Slavonic vejati "to blow;" Sanskrit vatah, Avestan vata-, Hittite huwantis, Latin ventus, Old English wind, German Wind, Gothic winds, Old Church Slavonic vetru, Lithuanian vėjas "wind;" Lithuanian vėtra "tempest, storm;" Old Irish feth "air;" Welsh gwynt, Breton gwent "wind." 

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