मुष्टि

Learned borrowing from Sanskrit मुष्टि (muṣṭí). Doublet of मूठ (mūṭh), मुट्ठी (muṭṭhī), and मुठिया (muṭhiyā).

Cognate to Persian مشت (môsht)

• (Delhi) IPA^(key): /mʊʂ.ʈiː/

मुष्टि • (muṣṭi) f

1. (rare, formal) a fist

• Dāsa, Śyāmasundara (1965–1975) “मुष्टि”, in Hindī Śabdasāgara [lit. Sea of Hindi words] (in Hindi), Kashi : Nagari Pracarini Sabha
• McGregor, Ronald Stuart (1993) “मुष्टि”, in The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, London: Oxford University Press
• Platts, John T. (1884) “मुष्टि”, in A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English, London: W. H. Allen & Co.

From Proto-Indo-Iranian *muštíš (“fist”). Cognate with Avestan 𐬨𐬎𐬱𐬙𐬌 (mušti), Middle Persian mwšt' (mušt).

• (Vedic) IPA^(key): /muʂ.ʈí/
• (Classical Sanskrit) IPA^(key): /ˈmuʂ.ʈi/

मुष्टि • (muṣṭí) stem, m or f

1. fist, clenched hand
   • c. 1700 BCE – 1200 BCE, Ṛgveda 4.47.30:

     अप प्रोथ दुन्दुभे दुच्छुना इत इन्द्रस्य मुष्टिर्असि वीळयस्व॥

     apa protha dundubhe ducchunā ita indrasya muṣṭirasi vīḷayasva.

     O War-drum, drive away misfortune: thou art the Fist of Indra: show thy firmness.

2. a handful, fistful
   • c. 700 BCE, Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa
3. stealing
4. sword hilt
5. the penis

• Dardic:
  • Kalasha: muṣṭí
  • Kashmiri: مۄٹھ (mọṭh)
• Prakrit: 𑀫𑀼𑀝𑁆𑀞𑀺 (muṭṭhi) (see there for further descendants)
• → Bengali: মুষ্টি (muśṭi)
• → Gujarati: મુષ્ટિ (muṣṭi)
• → Kannada: ಮುಷ್ಟಿ (muṣṭi)
• → Old Javanese: muṣṭi
• → Javanese: ꦩꦼꦱ꧀ꦛꦶ (mesthi)
  • → Malay: mesti
    • > Indonesian: mesti (inherited)
• → Tamil: முஷ்டி (muṣṭi)
• → Telugu: ముష్టి (muṣṭi)
• → Hindi: मुष्टि (muṣṭi) (learned)

• Monier Williams (1899) “मुष्टि”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, , new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 824.
• Apte, Vaman Shivram (1890) “मुष्टि”, in The practical Sanskrit-English dictionary, Poona: Prasad Prakashan
• Mayrhofer, Manfred (1996) Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen [Etymological Dictionary of Old Indo-Aryan]‎ (in German), volume 2, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, page 363
• Lubotsky, Alexander (2011) The Indo-Aryan Inherited Lexicon (in progress) (Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Project), Leiden University
• Turner, Ralph Lilley (1969–1985) “muṣṭí”, in A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, London: Oxford University Press
• Hellwig, Oliver (2010-2024) “muṣṭi”, in DCS - The Digital Corpus of Sanskrit, Berlin, Germany.