शश

Sanskrit

Alternative scripts

Etymology

From earlier *शस (śasa) (by assimilation of the second sibilant to the first), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ćasás (“hare”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeh₂s- (“grey, hare”). Cognate with English hare, Old Prussian sasnis (“hare”), Pashto سوی (soe, “hare”), Welsh ceinach (“hare, rabbit”), and Latin cānus (“white”).

Pronunciation

• (Vedic) IPA^(key): /ɕɐ.ɕɐ́/
• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈɕɐ.ɕɐ/

Noun

शश • (śaśá) stem, m

1. hare, rabbit
2. antelope
3. lunar maria (which are thought to resemble a hare or rabbit)
4. a kind of meteor
5. name of a man born under a particular constellation
6. a man of mild character and easily led (one of the four classes into which men are divided by erotic writers, the other three being अश्व (aśva), मृग (mṛga) and वृषन् (vṛṣan))
7. the लोध्र (lodhra) tree, Symplocos racemosa
8. gum-myrrh
9. name of a part of जम्बुद्वीप (Jambu-dvīpa)

Declension

Derived terms

• शशक (śaśaka)
• शशी (śaśī, “moon”)
• शशाङ्क (śaśāṅka, “moon”)

Descendants

• Pali: sasa
• Prakrit:
  • Magadhi Prakrit:
    • Assamese: শহা (xoha)
    • Bengali: শশা (śośa)
  • Helu Prakrit:
    • Sinhalese: සාවා (sāwā), සහාවා (sahāwā), ශශයා (śaśayā), සැසයා (sæsayā), හාවෝ (hāwō)?
  • Maharastri Prakrit: 𑀲𑀲 (sasa)
    • Old Marathi: ससा (sasā)
      • Marathi: ससा (sasā)
    • Konkani: सोंसो (souso)
  • Sauraseni Prakrit: 𑀲𑀲 (sasa)
    • Gujarati: સસલું (saslũ)
    • Hindi: सस (sas)
    • Punjabi: ਸਹਾ (sahā), ਸਹਿਆ (sahiā)
    • Romani: śośoj
• → Tamil: சசம் (cacam)

References

• Monier Williams (1899) “शश”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, , new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 1060/1.