ประเคน

Thai

Etymology

From Old Khmer ព្រគេន (pragena, pragēna), ប្រគេន (bragena, “to give or offer (something to a monk)”); extended forms of Angkorian Old Khmer គេន៑ (gen, “to move; to put forward; to present; to offer; etc”). Cognate with Modern Khmer ប្រគេន (prɑkein), Mon ဗ္ဂိန်.

Pronunciation

Orthographic		ประเคน p r a e g n
Phonemic		ปฺระ-เคน p ̥ r a – e g n
Romanization	Paiboon	bprà-keen
	Royal Institute	pra-khen
(standard) IPA(key)		/pra˨˩.kʰeːn˧/(R)

Verb

ประเคน • (bprà-keen) (abstract noun การประเคน)

1. to give or offer (something to a priest) by or as if by handing, especially as part of a ceremony or rite.
2. (slang, humorous, sarcastic) to present; to offer.

   ประเคนหมัด

   bprà-keen màt

   to punch; to hook
   (literally) to offer a fist

Usage notes

An old woman gives objects to a monk by putting the objects on the พาน (paan) tray and the tray is again placed on a piece of cloth for the monk to take.

• According to the Thai Buddhist convention, an object is directly handed to a priest if the object can be carried with the hand and the giver is a male, but if the giver is a female, the giver only places the object on a piece of cloth and the priest will take the object from the cloth due to the religious taboo prohibiting a woman from touching a male priest. If the object is too heavy to carry, the object is bound with a sacred thread, called สายสิญจน์, and the thread is presented to the priest instead. If the object is a food and it is touched by a layperson after it has already been given to a priest, the whole process of giving needs to be renewed.