pagoda

Etymology

From Portuguese pagode, which is via Malayalam പകോതി (pakōti) from Sanskrit भगवती (bhagavatī, name of a goddess) or भागवत (bhāgavata, “follower of Bhagavatī”).

noun

1. A religious building in South and Southeast Asia, especially a multi-storey tower erected as a Hindu or Buddhist temple.
   On the journey southwards over the flat, fertile plains, paddy fields stretched away on each side of the line, and the landscape was broken only by wooden villages and stately pagodas. 1943 November and December, G. T. Porter, “The Lines Behind the Lines in Burma”, in Railway Magazine, page 325
2. (now rare, usually in form pagod) An image or carving of a god in South and Southeast Asia; an idol.
3. (now historical) A unit of currency, a coin made of gold or half gold, issued by various dynasties in medieval southern India.
   I, in about two hours, notwithstanding the utmost caution, found myself minus upwards of six hundred pagodas […] . 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 240
4. An ornamental structure imitating the design of the religious building, erected in a park or garden.
5. (rare) A pagoda sleeve.