寺.

From Middle Chinese 寺 (MC ziH).

From Old Japanese. Appears in the Nihon Shoki of 720 CE, and in the Man'yōshū, completed some time after 759 CE. There are various theories regarding the ultimate derivation. * Some sources derive Japanese tera from an ancestor of Middle Korean 졀 (jeol) (likely Baekje). This is from earlier 뎔 (dyeol, “temple”) and is the nativised reading of 찰 (刹, chal, “Buddhist temple”) below, deriving in turn from Middle Chinese 剎 (MC tsrhaet), shortened from 剎多羅 (MC tsrhaet ta la, “Buddhist monastery, temple or shrine”), borrowed from Sanskrit क्षेत्र (kṣetra, “land, area, domain”), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *ṭṣáytram, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ćšáytram, from Proto-Indo-European *tḱéytrom. * Other sources describe Japanese tera as cognate with modern Korean 찰 (刹, chal, “temple”), appearing as a component in terms such as 선찰 (禪刹, seonchal, “Zen temple”), 사찰 (寺刹, sachal, “Buddhist temple”). * Another derivation is given as Pali thera (“elders”) in reference to the monks. Considering the phonetic development in Korean, the avenues for transmission of Buddhist terms to Japan, and the consistent temple sense of the Japanese term throughout recorded history, the now-obsolete Korean 뎔 (dyeol, “temple”) may be a more likely source than Pali thera (“elders”).