དག་, 43. J.’s entry under this entry is as follows: “དག་ (པའི༌) སྣང་ (བ་) Schr. ‘good opinion’ (?), prob.: a pure, sound view or knowledge Glr.; in Mil. it has a similar meaning.” He adds an oral sentence: “*dhag-náṅ jón-wa* C. to lead a holy life.” (sic. jón = jóṅ?) Schroeter has (135b): “དག་, a good opinion, a good conception of any thing, a conceit, a thought.” [Based on an Italian ‘concetto’?] He has two further entries ‘དག་, to form a good [[46]]opinion of any individual,’ and ‘དག་ (read: སྦྱོང་) བ་, to form a good opinion, or to conceive well of any one.’

In our passage we are inclined to take སྣང་ as སྣང་, as ‘view, thought, idea, conception,’ etc., and སྦྱོང་ = ‘to exercise, practise, perform’, or even ‘to entertain, cherish (thoughts).’ དག་ we take as དག་, ‘pure’—the connection with thought not the opposite of false, erroneous, but of bad, cruel, unkind. So here the expression seems to mean ‘to think with goodwill, with kindness (of others),’ not the colloquial ‘to have a good opinion of, to think well of.’ To think ‘good’ is here the opposite of to think ‘evil,’ but the idiomatic value of the expression ‘to think well of’ (as the opposite of ‘to think poorly of’) would make the latter rendering misleading. The real value, then, of the expression as used in this passage, seems to be: ‘to think good, kind thoughts of,’ i.e. purely, or saintly in the sense of kindly, lovingly, benevolently, in a friendly manner, with sympathy, but not, as J. seems to suggest, intellectually correct. We may expand the rendering into ‘with a holy mind, with thoughts of saintliness, thinking saintly thoughts.’ Compare J.’s colloquial phrase quoted above. So, as to the interpretation of the line in which the compound occurs, we take it that it means to enjoin, in contrast with the previous line in which it is said that beings in general must be thought of with kindness, that religious people (instead of the mere laymen) must be thought of in a still better, higher manner, namely with holiness and saintliness.

One of my informants was first inclined to take དག་ as ‘to teach, to preach the true knowledge.’ Though he later on sided with the explanation adopted above, the opinion should be recorded, but it should be added that a second informant rejected this view of the first one.

Attention should be drawn to the meaning of སྣང་, ‘the soul’ (with spellings སྣང་ and ནང་; དག་, རྟགས་, བརྟག་, སྟག་, s. J.). Also the curious expression ‘to be indifferent’ སྣང་, S. Ch. D.; and སྣང་, Bell. These expressions not in Desg. [[47]]

དག་ see དག་.

དང་ see དཔེ་.

དྭངས་, 27. Adverb: ‘purely, first class, first rate.’ Not in J. but in Desg., yet here in a slightly different application. About S. Ch. D.’s ‘gravy’ and ‘relish’ see below. དྭངས་ with the genitive seems to mean ‘acme’, ‘essence’, the typical embodiment of something, like in expressions as ‘a first class liar, a thief pure and simple, the very devil, satan himself, nothing short of an angel, a saint in propria persona.’ དགྲ་, ‘the very enemy.’ In the colloquial དྭངས་, ཡང་ and ཨང་ may have the same meaning. The latter is something like pidgin-English ‘number one’ or the kitchen Malay equivalent ‘nommer satu.’ Other equations are གཅིག་ (or པུ་), also རང་, the Anglo-Indian ‘pukka.’

The word དྭངས་ may mean soup or gravy in the following case, when there is question of singling out the liquid portion from a mixture of broth and liquid. The primary meaning seems in that case rather to be liquid as contrasted to solid. ང་ = give me (only) the liquid (not the solid stuff), pour out to me (only) the liquid. But this དྭངས་ has no final མ་. A common word for soup which is not in the Dicts. is ‘rü thang’, probably རུས་, or ཐང་ alone. This latter word is in J. with the meaning of ‘potion’, a medical term, and in S. Ch. D. as ‘potion, plain decoction, or mixture to be drunk after a medicinal pill has been taken.’ The word རུས་ means originally bone-soup, but has acquired also the more general meaning ‘soup.’ ཐང་ can be applied to meat-soup, ཤ་, but ཤ་ cannot be used. It might be that ཐང་ and དྭངས་ are really the same word. [[48]]

དད་ see སྐྱེ་.

དམ་, 30. Might here, in connection with ambition, be translated as ‘fierce,’ an extension of its primary meaning ‘strong.’