Editing Thailand (section)

== Etymology ==
Thailand{{efn-lr|name=endo}} was known by outsiders before 1939 as ''Siam''.{{efn-lr|name=siam}} According to [[George Cœdès]], the word ''Thai'' ({{linktext|ไทย}}) means 'free man' in the Thai language, "differentiating the Thai from the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs".<ref name="Coedes 1968">{{Cite book |last=Cœdès |first=George |title=The Indianized States of Southeast Asia |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |others=Trans. Susan Brown Cowing |year=1968 |isbn=978-0-8248-0368-1 |editor-last=Walter F. Vella |author-link=George Cœdès}}</ref>{{RP|197}} According to [[Chit Phumisak]], Thai ({{lang|th|ไท}}) simply means 'people' or 'human being'; his investigation shows that some rural areas used the word "Thai" instead of the usual Thai word ''khon'' ({{linktext|คน}}) for people.<ref name="Phumisak 1992">{{Cite book |last=Phumisak |first=Chit |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IadwAAAAMAAJ |title=ความเป็นมาของคําสยาม ไทย, ลาว และขอม และลักษณะทางสังคมของชื่อชนชาติ: ฉบับสมบูรณ์ เพิ่มเติม ข้อเท็จจริงว่าด้วยชนชาติขอม |date=1992 |publisher=Samnakphim Sayām |isbn=978-974-85729-9-4 |language=th |trans-title=Etymology of Siam, Thai, Lao, Khmer |author-link=Chit Phumisak |access-date=31 December 2021 |archive-date=28 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240328150348/https://books.google.com/books?id=IadwAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> According to [[Michel Ferlus]], the ethnonyms Thai-Tai (or Thay-Tay) would have evolved from the etymon ''*k(ə)ri:'' 'human being'.{{efn-lr|Through the following chain: ''*kəri:'' > ''*kəli:'' > ''*kədi:/*kədaj'' > ''*di:/*daj'' > ''*daj<sup>A</sup>'' (Proto-Southwestern Tai) > ''tʰaj<sup>A2</sup>'' (in [[Thai language|Siamese]] and [[Lao language|Lao]]) or > ''taj<sup>A2</sup>'' (in the other [[Southwestern Tai languages|Southwestern]] and [[Central Tai languages]] classified by [[Li Fang-Kuei|Li Fangkuei]]).<ref>[https://hal.inria.fr/halshs-01182596/document Ferlus, Michel (2009). Formation of Ethnonyms in Southeast Asia] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119060814/https://hal.inria.fr/halshs-01182596/document |date=19 November 2016}}. ''42nd International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, November 2009, Chiang Mai, 2009'', p.3.</ref> Ferlus work is based on simple rules of phonetic change observable in the [[Sinosphere (linguistics)|Sinosphere]] and studied for the most part by [[William H. Baxter]] (1992).}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pain |first=Frédéric |year=2008 |title=An Introduction to Thai Ethnonymy: Examples from Shan and Northern Thai |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=128 |issue=4 |pages=641–662 |jstor=25608449}}</ref>

Thais often refer to their country using the polite form ''prathet Thai'' ({{langx|th|ประเทศไทย}}). They also use the more colloquial term ''mueang Thai'' ({{langx|th|เมืองไทย}}) or simply ''Thai;'' the word ''[[mueang]]'', archaically referring to a [[Mandala (political model)|city-state]], is commonly used to refer to a city or town as the centre of a region. ''Ratcha Anachak Thai'' ({{langx|th|ราชอาณาจักรไทย}}) means 'kingdom of Thailand' or 'kingdom of Thai'. 

Etymologically, its components are: ''ratcha'' ({{langx|sa|राजन्}}, ''[[rājan]]'', 'king, royal, realm'), ''ana-'' ([[Pali]] ''āṇā'' 'authority, command, power', itself from the Sanskrit {{lang|sa|आज्ञा}}, ''ājñā'', of the same meaning), and ''-chak'' (from Sanskrit {{lang|sa|{{linktext|चक्र}}}} ''cakra-'' 'wheel', a symbol of power and rule). 

The [[Thai National Anthem]] ({{langx|th|เพลงชาติ}}), written by [[Luang Saranupraphan]] during the patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as ''prathet Thai'' ({{langx|th|ประเทศไทย}}). The first line of the national anthem is: ''prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai'' ({{langx|th|ประเทศไทยรวมเลือดเนื้อชาติเชื้อไทย}}), 'Thailand is founded on blood and flesh'.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Panyasuppakun |first=Kornrawee |date=8 August 2017 |title=Patriotism remixed |url=https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/1302183/patriotism-remixed |access-date=2024-06-01 |work=Bangkok Post |language=en}}</ref>

The former name ''Siam'' may have originated from [[Sanskrit]] श्याम (''śyāma'', 'dark')<ref name="Phumisak 1992" /> or [[Mon language|Mon]] ရာမည (''rhmañña'', 'stranger'), probably the same root as ''[[Shan people|Shan]]'' and ''[[Assam]]''.<ref>Barend Jan Terwiel, Chaichuen Khamdaengyodtai, ''Shan Manuscripts''. Franz Steiner, 2003, p. 9.</ref> The word ''Śyâma'' is possibly not the true origin, but a pre-designed deviation from its proper, original meaning.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eliot |first=Charles |title=The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 (of 3) [EBook #16847] |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. |year=1921 |location=London |pages=Ch. xxxvii 1; citing in turn Footnote 189: The name is found on [[Champa]]n inscriptions of 1050 CE and according to Gerini appears in [[Ptolemy]]'s [[Geographia|Samarade]] = Sâmaraṭṭha. See Gerini, Ptolemy, p. 170. But Samarade is near Bangkok and there can hardly have been Thais there in Ptolemy's time; and Footnote 190: So too in Central Asia Kustana appears to be a learned distortion of the name [[Khotan]], made to give it a meaning in Sanskrit}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Klikauer |first=Thomas |title=Distorted Communication I: Classifications |year=2008 |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230583238_4 |work=Management Communication: Communicative Ethics and Action |pages=55–73 |editor-last=Klikauer |editor-first=Thomas |access-date=2024-01-02 |place=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|doi=10.1057/9780230583238_4 |isbn=978-0-230-58323-8 |archive-date=28 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240328150529/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230583238_4 |url-status=live }}</ref> Another theory is the name derives from the Chinese calling this region 'Xian'.{{efn-lr|"Ayutthaya emerged as a dominant centre in the late 14th century. The Chinese called this region Xian, which the Portuguese converted into Siam."}}<ref name="Baker 2014" />{{RP|8}} 

The ancient Khmers used the word ''Siam'' to refer to people settled in the west [[Chao Phraya River]] valley surrounding the ancient city of [[Nakhon Pathom]] in the present-day [[central Thailand]]; it may probably originate from the name of Lord [[Krishna]], which also called ''Shyam'', as in the [[Wat Sri Chum Inscription]], dated 13th century CE, mentions {{ill|Phra Maha Thera Sri Sattha|th|พระมหาเถรศรีศรัทธา}} came to restore [[Phra Pathommachedi]] at the city of Lord Krishna (Nakhon Pathom) in the early era of the [[Sukhothai Kingdom]].<ref name="sac">{{cite web|trans-title=Wat Sri Chum Inscription|url=https://db.sac.or.th/inscriptions/inscribe/detail/177|title=จารึกวัดศรีชุม|accessdate=29 August 2023|language=th|publisher=[[Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre]]|archivedate=28 August 2023|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20230828215526/https://db.sac.or.th/inscriptions/inscribe/detail/177}}</ref>

[[File:Kingdom & People of Siam (Vol 1, 1857, 15).svg|thumb|''SPPM Mongkut Rex Siamensium'', [[King Mongkut]]'s signature]]

The signature of King [[Mongkut]] (r. 1851–1868) reads ''SPPM'' (''Somdet Phra Poramenthra Maha'') ''Mongkut Rex Siamensium'' (Mongkut, King of the Siamese). This usage of the name in [[Bowring Treaty|the country's first international treaty]] gave the name ''Siam'' official status, until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to ''Thailand''.<ref>[http://www.csmngt.com/thailand_history.htm Thailand (Siam) History], CSMngt-Thai. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150424080811/http://www.csmngt.com/thailand_history.htm |date=24 April 2015}}</ref>