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Originally Posted by wolf
Eastern languages are very mysterious and inscrutable, aren't they.
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Not really. Inscrutable means they can't be understood, which would be fairly pointless for a language. It's just a conflation of two words "Ko" meaning with, or imbued with, and Danda, which was the name of a rod that rulers used to use to beat criminals within their domain.
The word Danda became more technical, and more idealized in it's use, and the conflation of the two came to be identified with a specific type of bow.
Our western languages have several examples of the same sort of thing. Compunction, Abjure, Sophistry.
-sm