世界

Coined by Buddhist translators (c. 3rd century) to translate Sanskrit लोकधातु (lokadhātu, “world”). In its original Buddhist sense, the word encompassed a range of spatial meanings from a 小世界 (xiǎo shìjiè, “minor world”) with a single sun and moon to the billion-world 三千大千世界 (sānqiān-dàqiān-shìjiè, “trichiliocosm”). Its modern sense dates from Japanese 世(せ)界(かい) (sekai) re-adaptation of the word in the nineteenth century and it has since largely displaced the classical 天下 (tiānxià, “all-under-Heaven”) in general usage.