शुष्क

Borrowed from Sanskrit शुष्क (śúṣka). Doublet of सूखा (sūkhā).

• (Delhi) IPA^(key): /ʃʊʂk/,

शुष्क • (śuṣk) (indeclinable)

1. dry, shrivelled; arid

   Synonym: सूखा (sūkhā)

2. dull, uninteresting

   उसको जीवन शुष्क लगने लगा है।

   usko jīvan śuṣk lagne lagā hai.

   Life has become dull for him.

• McGregor, Ronald Stuart (1993) “शुष्क”, in The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, London: Oxford University Press

Inherited from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hsúškas (“dry”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂sews- (“to be dry”).

Related to the root शुष् (śuṣ), and cognate with Avestan 𐬵𐬎𐬱𐬐𐬀 (huška, “dry”), Persian خشک (xošk, “dry”), Russian суши́ть (sušítʹ, “to dry”), Lithuanian saũsinti, Old English sēarian (whence English sear).

• (Vedic) IPA^(key): /ɕúʂ.kɐ/
• (Classical Sanskrit) IPA^(key): /ˈɕuʂ.kɐ/

शुष्क॑ • (śúṣka) stem

1. dried, dried up, dry, arid, parched, shrivelled, emaciated, shrunk, withered
   • c. 1700 BCE – 1200 BCE, Ṛgveda 6.18.10:

     अग्निर्न शुष्कं वनमिन्द्र हेती रक्षो नि धक्ष्यशनिर्न भीमा ।

     agnirna śuṣkaṃ vanamindra hetī rakṣo ni dhakṣyaśanirna bhīmā.

     As Agni burns down the dry forest like a dart, burn down the demons like a missile, O Indra.

2. useless, fruitless, groundless, vain, unprofitable, empty
   • c. 400 BCE, Mahābhārata
   • c. 200 BCE – 200 CE, Manusmṛti
3. mere, simple

• शुष्यति (śúṣyati)
• शोषयति (śoṣáyati)

• Pali: sukkha
• Prakrit: 𑀲𑀼𑀓𑁆𑀔 (sukkha) (see there for further descendants)

• Monier Williams (1899) “शुष्क”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, , new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 1084/3.
• Mayrhofer, Manfred (1996) Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen [Etymological Dictionary of Old Indo-Aryan]‎ (in German), volume 2, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, pages 648-9