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kir·pan

(kîr-pän, kûr-)

A ceremonial dagger or sword with a curved blade that all observant Sikhs are required to wear.

[Punjabi kirpān and Hindi kpān, both from Sanskrit kpāṇaḥ, sacrificial knife, dagger; perhaps akin to kalpayati, he distributes, trims, cuts; see skel-¹ in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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