user21432: A person told me that the Buddha coined certain words as part of his teachings. I don't remember which words, but perhaps "samadhi" was one of them.
Is there any evidence the Buddha invented new words? If so, do we know which ones?

user21432: According to Bhante Vimalaramsi, "samadhi" was coined by the Buddha.

Now, the last factor--I've got a lot to say about that one--"Right
Concentration." One of the observations that Rhys Davies made about
the word "concentration" (or "samadhi" in Pali) was that that word was
never used in the time of the Buddha. The Buddha made this word up to
describe a particular kind of mental development. But Rhys Davies,
because of his ignorance, called it "concentration," and it's been
called "concentration" ever since. And any time anybody thinks about
"concentration," they think about one-pointedness of mind. Because
there were a lot of practices that were being practiced during the
time of the Buddha, a lot of different kinds of meditation, and they
were all one-pointed concentration. The Buddha could have picked up
one of those other Pali words that meant one-pointed concentration,
but he didn't. He made up a word to describe something different. So
my definition of "samadhi" is "collectedness." Collectedness has
stillness, calm, and composure.

This is at the beginning of VIII. Harmonious Collectedness

user471: The Buddha invented his own terms and defined them, using everyday words that already existed in the local dialects.
First, discussion on the language he used, is found in "The Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts" by Bhikkhu Sujato and Bhikkhu Brahmali below. Pali is a constructed language that is closely related to the Buddha's original dialect (Magadhan Prakrit).

Early generations of Indologists accepted the traditional  Theravādin
claim that Pali was the language of the Buddha. More recent linguistic
studies,however, show that Pali is in part an artificial language,
created some time after the Buddha [3, 140]. However, the differences
in language between Pali and the historically datable language of the
Asokan pillars are no more than minor phonetic changes that rarely, if
ever, affect the meaning of the content. In all probability a
similarly close relationship obtains between Pali and the historical
Buddha’s own dialect [2, 194] [9, 11].
Moreover, the Buddha himself may have used varying dialects depending
on where he travelled [2, 190–191] [5, 99], and certainly his
disciples did: they were in fact encouraged to speak in their own
dialect. As Buddhism spread throughout Northern India, this diverging
use of language must eventually have led to a need for
standardisation, and this probably explains the introduction and
development of Pali. Alternatively, or perhaps complementarily, Pali
is related to a particular dialect in India from where the missions to
Sri Lanka originated. A number of scholars are of the opinion that the
West-Indian dialect associated with the Asokan rockedicts at Girnār
and Bombay-Sopārā are closely related to Pali [7, 73–74][9, 8–9]. The
precise age of Pali, therefore, does not have any bearing onthe age of
the contents of the EBTs.
Finally, there are no certain traces of Sinhalese influence on the
Pali EBTs [4, 246] [5, 102–103]. This suggests that the EBTs were in a
standardised form when they arrived in Sri Lanka around the time of
Asoka and that they are unlikely to have been changed after this. As
Wynne says: “If the language of the Pali canon is north Indian in
origin, and without substantial Sinhalese additions, it is likely that
the canon was composed somewhere in north India before its
introduction to Sri Lanka, and is therefore a source for the period of
Buddhism in Northern India before this” 2, that is,before Asoka. In
contrast, Pali texts actually composed in Sri Lanka do show influence
from both Sinhalese and Dravidian [6, 6]

According to Bhikkhu Bodhi (from here):

Scholars regard this language (Pali) as a hybrid showing features of
several Prakrit dialects used around the third century BCE, subjected
to a partial process of Sanskritization. While the language is not
identical to what Buddha himself would have spoken, it belongs to the
same broad language family as those he might have used and originates
from the same conceptual matrix. This language thus reflects the
thought-world that the Buddha inherited from the wider Indian culture
into which he was born, so that its words capture the subtle nuances
of that thought-world.

Secondly, the Buddha forbade his disciples from using Sanskrit, the language of the royal court and of the Brahman clergy. Instead he wanted his disciples to use the local dialects of the common people. This can be found here, in the Theravada Vinaya, in Cullavagga, fifth Khandaka, chapter 33:

And so sitting those Bhikkhus spake to the Blessed One thus:
'At the present time, Lord, Bhikkhus, differing in name, differing in
lineage, differing in birth, differing in family, have gone forth
(from the world). These corrupt the word of the Buddhas by (repeating
it in) their own dialect. Let us, Lord, put the word of the Buddhas
into (Sanskrit) verse.'
'How can you, O foolish ones, speak thus, saying, "Let us, Lord, put
the word of the Buddhas into verse?" This will not conduce, O foolish
ones, either to the conversion of the unconverted, or to the increase
of the converted; but rather to those who have not been converted
being not converted, and to the turning back of those who have been
converted.'
And when the Blessed One had rebuked those Bhikkhus, and had delivered
a religious discourse, he addressed the Bhikkhus, and said:
'You are not, O Bhikkhus, to put the word of the Buddhas into
(Sanskrit) verse. Whosoever does so, shall be guilty of a dukkata. I
allow you, O Bhikkhus, to learn the word of the Buddhas each in his
own dialect.'

Thirdly, the Buddha redefined words from ordinary language into technical terms with specific meaning, depending on context.
For e.g. "dhamma" could mean "phenomena" or "thing", "concept", "teachings" depending on context.
And "sankhara" also means different things depending on context, as seen in this question.
The five aggregates (rupa, vedana, sanna, sankhara, vinnana) are defined in SN 22.79.
The world or "loka" is discussed in this question.
The All or "sabba" is discussed in this question.
Heedfulness or "appamada" is discussed in this question.
Noble or "ariya" is discussed in this question.
Another one is "ahara" (nutriment) is defined in SN 12.11 and many more.
This is explained by Bhikkhu Sujato in his blog entry:

If we look closely at the terms in the jhana formula, then, we find
that they are words that have a more coarse physical or psychological
meaning in everyday language. They are common words that everyone can
understand, and can relate to their own experience. And in every
single case, they clearly have a more subtle, abstract, evolved
meaning in the context of jhana. We have moved from the ordinary mind
to the ‘higher mind’, and everything about the experience is
transformed.
So, for example, the first word in the formula is viveka. This
normally means physical seclusion; going away from others into the
forest or a solitary spot. In jhana, however, it refers to a mental
seclusion, where the mind turns away from the senses and withdraws
into itself. The Pali texts make this distinction clear, as elsewhere
they speak of three kinds of seclusion: physical, mental (i.e. the
jhanas), and seclusion from all attachments (Awakening).
The next word in the formula is kama. In ordinary language this means
the pleasures of life, especially sex, but also food, drink, luxuries,
and other pleasures of the senses. In jhana, however, it has a more
subtle nuance, referring to the mind that inclines to taking pleasure
in any experience through the five senses.
Then there is the word akusala. Normally this means ‘unskilful’, as,
for example, someone who is no good at a certain craft. One who is
kusala, on the other hand, is clever and adroit. In the jhana formula,
however, kusala includes any tendency of the mind that creates
suffering.
Similarly there is the word dhamma, which is what akusala qualifies.
Dhamma in ordinary language has a variety of meanings, such as ‘law’,
‘custom’, and so on. In jhana, however, it takes on a far more subtle
meaning, that is, any object, quality, or tendency of the mind. The
akusala-dhammas, or ‘unskilful qualities’, especially refer to the
five hindrances which must be abandoned before entering jhana.
And so on. I could go on through the entire jhana formula and show how
each word is related to, but abstracted from, its more concrete
everyday basis, its ‘metaphier’. But I think that’s enough examples.


21432: <p>A person told me that the Buddha coined certain words as part of his teachings. I don't remember which words, but perhaps &quot;samadhi&quot; was one of them.</p>
<p>Is there any evidence the Buddha invented new words? If so, do we know which ones?</p>
 21432: <p>According to Bhante Vimalaramsi, &quot;samadhi&quot; was coined by the Buddha.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Now, the last factor--I've got a lot to say about that one--&quot;Right
Concentration.&quot; One of the observations that Rhys Davies made about
the word &quot;concentration&quot; (or &quot;samadhi&quot; in Pali) was that that word was
never used in the time of the Buddha. The Buddha made this word up to
describe a particular kind of mental development. But Rhys Davies,
because of his ignorance, called it &quot;concentration,&quot; and it's been
called &quot;concentration&quot; ever since. And any time anybody thinks about
&quot;concentration,&quot; they think about one-pointedness of mind. Because
there were a lot of practices that were being practiced during the
time of the Buddha, a lot of different kinds of meditation, and they
were all one-pointed concentration. The Buddha could have picked up
one of those other Pali words that meant one-pointed concentration,
but he didn't. He made up a word to describe something different. So
my definition of &quot;samadhi&quot; is &quot;collectedness.&quot; Collectedness has
stillness, calm, and composure.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.dhammatalks.net/Books/Ven_Vimalaramsi_Noble_Eightfold_Path_and_Visuddhimagga.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">This is at the beginning of VIII. Harmonious Collectedness</a></p>
 471: <p>The Buddha invented his own terms and defined them, using everyday words that already existed in the local dialects.</p>
<p>First, discussion on the language he used, is found in &quot;<a href="https://ocbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/authenticity.pdf" rel="noreferrer">The Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts</a>&quot; by Bhikkhu Sujato and Bhikkhu Brahmali below. Pali is a constructed language that is closely related to the Buddha's original dialect (Magadhan Prakrit).</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Early generations of Indologists accepted the traditional  Theravādin
claim that Pali was the language of the Buddha. More recent linguistic
studies,however, show that Pali is in part an artificial language,
created some time after the Buddha [3, 140]. However, the differences
in language between Pali and the historically datable language of the
Asokan pillars are no more than minor phonetic changes that rarely, if
ever, affect the meaning of the content. <strong>In all probability a
similarly close relationship obtains between Pali and the historical
Buddha’s own dialect</strong> [2, 194] [9, 11].</p>
<p><strong>Moreover, the Buddha himself may have used varying dialects depending
on where he travelled [2, 190–191] [5, 99], and certainly his
disciples did: they were in fact encouraged to speak in their own
dialect.</strong> As Buddhism spread throughout Northern India, this diverging
use of language must eventually have led to a need for
standardisation, and this probably explains the introduction and
development of Pali. Alternatively, or perhaps complementarily, Pali
is related to a particular dialect in India from where the missions to
Sri Lanka originated. A number of scholars are of the opinion that the
West-Indian dialect associated with the Asokan rockedicts at Girnār
and Bombay-Sopārā are closely related to Pali [7, 73–74][9, 8–9]. The
precise age of Pali, therefore, does not have any bearing onthe age of
the contents of the EBTs.</p>
<p>Finally, there are no certain traces of Sinhalese influence on the
Pali EBTs [4, 246] [5, 102–103]. This suggests that the EBTs were in a
standardised form when they arrived in Sri Lanka around the time of
Asoka and that they are unlikely to have been changed after this. As
Wynne says: “If the language of the Pali canon is north Indian in
origin, and without substantial Sinhalese additions, it is likely that
the canon was composed somewhere in north India before its
introduction to Sri Lanka, and is therefore a source for the period of
Buddhism in Northern India before this” <a href="https://sujato.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/why-vitakka-doesnt-mean-thinking-in-jhana/" rel="noreferrer">2</a>, that is,before Asoka. In
contrast, Pali texts actually composed in Sri Lanka do show influence
from both Sinhalese and Dravidian [6, 6]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to Bhikkhu Bodhi (from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali#Modern_scholarship" rel="noreferrer">here</a>):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Scholars regard this language (Pali) as a hybrid showing features of
several Prakrit dialects used around the third century BCE, subjected
to a partial process of Sanskritization. While the language is not
identical to what Buddha himself would have spoken, it belongs to the
same broad language family as those he might have used and originates
from the same conceptual matrix. This language thus reflects the
thought-world that the Buddha inherited from the wider Indian culture
into which he was born, so that its words capture the subtle nuances
of that thought-world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Secondly, the Buddha forbade his disciples from using Sanskrit, the language of the royal court and of the Brahman clergy. Instead he wanted his disciples to use the local dialects of the common people. This can be found here, in the Theravada Vinaya, in <a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe20/sbe20048.htm" rel="noreferrer">Cullavagga, fifth Khandaka, chapter 33</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And so sitting those Bhikkhus spake to the Blessed One thus:</p>
<p>'At the present time, Lord, Bhikkhus, differing in name, differing in
lineage, differing in birth, differing in family, have gone forth
(from the world). These corrupt the word of the Buddhas by (repeating
it in) their own dialect. Let us, Lord, put the word of the Buddhas
into (Sanskrit) verse.'</p>
<p>'How can you, O foolish ones, speak thus, saying, &quot;Let us, Lord, put
the word of the Buddhas into verse?&quot; This will not conduce, O foolish
ones, either to the conversion of the unconverted, or to the increase
of the converted; but rather to those who have not been converted
being not converted, and to the turning back of those who have been
converted.'</p>
<p>And when the Blessed One had rebuked those Bhikkhus, and had delivered
a religious discourse, he addressed the Bhikkhus, and said:</p>
<p><strong>'You are not, O Bhikkhus, to put the word of the Buddhas into
(Sanskrit) verse. Whosoever does so, shall be guilty of a dukkata. I
allow you, O Bhikkhus, to learn the word of the Buddhas each in his
own dialect.'</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Thirdly, the Buddha redefined words from ordinary language into technical terms with specific meaning, depending on context.</p>
<p>For e.g. &quot;dhamma&quot; could mean &quot;phenomena&quot; or &quot;thing&quot;, &quot;concept&quot;, &quot;teachings&quot; depending on context.</p>
<p>And &quot;sankhara&quot; also means different things depending on context, as seen in <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/12691/471">this question</a>.</p>
<p>The five aggregates (rupa, vedana, sanna, sankhara, vinnana) are defined in <a href="https://suttacentral.net/sn22.79/en/bodhi" rel="noreferrer">SN 22.79</a>.</p>
<p>The world or &quot;loka&quot; is discussed in <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/45355/471">this question</a>.</p>
<p>The All or &quot;sabba&quot; is discussed in <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/30382/471">this question</a>.</p>
<p>Heedfulness or &quot;appamada&quot; is discussed in <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/22181/471">this question</a>.</p>
<p>Noble or &quot;ariya&quot; is discussed in <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/41811/471">this question</a>.</p>
<p>Another one is &quot;ahara&quot; (nutriment) is defined in <a href="https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.011.than.html" rel="noreferrer">SN 12.11</a> and many more.</p>
<p>This is explained by Bhikkhu Sujato in <a href="https://sujato.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/why-vitakka-doesnt-mean-thinking-in-jhana/" rel="noreferrer">his blog entry</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we look closely at the terms in the jhana formula, then, we find
that <strong>they are words that have a more coarse physical or psychological
meaning in everyday language. They are common words that everyone can
understand, and can relate to their own experience. And in every
single case, they clearly have a more subtle, abstract, evolved
meaning</strong> in the context of jhana. We have moved from the ordinary mind
to the ‘higher mind’, and everything about the experience is
transformed.</p>
<p>So, for example, the first word in the formula is viveka. This
normally means physical seclusion; going away from others into the
forest or a solitary spot. In jhana, however, it refers to a mental
seclusion, where the mind turns away from the senses and withdraws
into itself. The Pali texts make this distinction clear, as elsewhere
they speak of three kinds of seclusion: physical, mental (i.e. the
jhanas), and seclusion from all attachments (Awakening).</p>
<p>The next word in the formula is kama. In ordinary language this means
the pleasures of life, especially sex, but also food, drink, luxuries,
and other pleasures of the senses. In jhana, however, it has a more
subtle nuance, referring to the mind that inclines to taking pleasure
in any experience through the five senses.</p>
<p>Then there is the word akusala. Normally this means ‘unskilful’, as,
for example, someone who is no good at a certain craft. One who is
kusala, on the other hand, is clever and adroit. In the jhana formula,
however, kusala includes any tendency of the mind that creates
suffering.</p>
<p>Similarly there is the word dhamma, which is what akusala qualifies.
Dhamma in ordinary language has a variety of meanings, such as ‘law’,
‘custom’, and so on. In jhana, however, it takes on a far more subtle
meaning, that is, any object, quality, or tendency of the mind. The
akusala-dhammas, or ‘unskilful qualities’, especially refer to the
five hindrances which must be abandoned before entering jhana.</p>
<p>And so on. I could go on through the entire jhana formula and show how
<strong>each word is related to, but abstracted from, its more concrete
everyday basis, its ‘metaphier’</strong>. But I think that’s enough examples.</p>
</blockquote>
