सखि

From Proto-Indo-Iranian *sákʰā, from Proto-Indo-European *sokʷH- (“friend, companion”), from *sekʷ- (“to follow”). Cognate with Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬑𐬌 (haxi, “friend”), Latin socius (“partner, companion”), Proto-Germanic *sagjaz (“warrior, retainer”), Old English secg (“man, warrior, hero”).

• (Vedic) IPA^(key): /sɐ́.kʰi/
• (Classical Sanskrit) IPA^(key): /ˈs̪ɐ.kʰi/

सखि • (sákhi) stem, m (feminine सखी)

1. a friend, companion

   Synonyms: मित्र (mitra), हित (hita)

   • c. 1700 BCE – 1200 BCE, Ṛgveda 6.26.8:

     वयं ते अस्यामिन्द्र द्युम्नहूतौ सखायः स्याम महिन प्रेष्ठाः ।

     vayaṃ te asyāmindra dyumnahūtau sakhāyaḥ syāma mahina preṣṭhāḥ.

     O Indra, at this holy invocation, may we be thy friends and thy most beloved.

2. assistant
3. the husband of the wife's sister, brother-in-law

This noun has for the five strong cases a peculiarly strengthened base (vrddhied), namely sákhāy, which in the nominative singular is reduced to sákhā (without ending), and in the other cases takes the normal endings; this declensional paradigm is considered to most faithfully preserve the original declension of PIE *oi-stems. The instrumental and dative singular have the normal endings simply, without inserted n or guṇa; the ablative-genitive singular adds -us; and the locative singular adds -au: the rest exhibits normal endings of the paradigm.

• Monier Williams (1899) “सखि”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, , new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 1130.
• Mayrhofer, Manfred (1996) Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen [Etymological Dictionary of Old Indo-Aryan]‎ (in German), volume 2, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, pages 684-685