Chakras

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A series of designated energy centers within the body, thought to affect mental, physical, and spiritual health
2. Specific focal points representing life forces in the context of Eastern spiritual practices that influence well-being
3. Energy centers believed to play a crucial role in personal healing and balance, linked to various aspects of health and consciousness

Etymology: The Sanskrit "cakra" means "wheel, disc, cycle," and the same root sits behind a family of English words that look unrelated. "Chakram" is a throwing-quoit weapon from Indian tradition, and "cycle," "wheel," and "cyclus" share the root too, which makes "chakra" a doublet of them. The Proto-Indo-European ancestor, reconstructed as *kʷekʷlos, meant something rolling, which is why a wheel and a cycle of time both descend from it. The Sanskrit word reached English through Hindi, which also carries the form "cakra." In the Indian tradition the word was applied to the body, where the energy centres are imagined as spinning wheels, so the physical image of revolution carried over into the notion of focal points of life force. English later borrowed the term for these centres in the same sense it held in Sanskrit and Hindi.