A month and half into my Yoga practices at the studio I was beginning to pick up a lot more terms, I didn't understand many of them and don't understand many of them even until this day (3 months since). Some of the words are more easily picked up and can be deciphered by simply putting two and two together, for example, everytime we are in a relaxed standing position (known as the mountain pose) the Yogi will say "Tadasana", and so now I know that the mountain pose is also 'Tadasana'. I have learned in passing what "Asana" means in the exact same way by listening to the Yogi lead and instruct the students.
When I finally decided to look the word "Asana" up I became slightly confused, I had thought the word "Asana" was one word to describe yoga postures, thus every posture can be described as Asana, but on my quest to learn "Asana" and it's meaning I came to find that the word "Asana" actually meant to sit down and is a body position associated with the practice of Yoga, originally identified as a mastery of sitting still in a position that is firm, but relaxed, for an extended or timeless period. I was a bit confused having thought the word meant 'yoga postures' for such a long time, however, the thing about Asana is that it ALSO means yoga postures. Though the original meaning of Asana may have been to 'Sit still' it later also became a term for various postures useful for restoring and maintaining the yogi's well-being as well as improving the body's flexibility and vitality, WITH the goal to cultivate the ability to remain in a seated meditation for extended periods *Wikipedia.
Thus, the word "Asana" with an actual meaning "to sit" originally describes a sitting posture to be held for an extended period of time that is relaxes yet firm ALSO is the word used as a term for yoga postures/positions.
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