Inherited from Middle Bengali ছুছা (chucha) with artificial nasalization and final stop deaspiration, from Magadhi Prakrit 𑀙𑀼𑀘𑁆𑀙 (chuccha) + Middle Indo-Aryan -𑀓- (-ka-), assimilated from 𑀢𑀼𑀘𑁆𑀙 (tuccha), from Sanskrit तुच्छ्य (tucchya, “empty, vain”), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *tuśćyás, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *tušćyás, from Proto-Indo-European *tus-sḱ-yós (“empty”). Cognate with Odia ଛୁଛା (chuchā), Bhojpuri छूँछ (chū̃ch), Hindi छूछा (chūchā), Nepali छुचो (chuco), Punjabi ਛੂਛਾ (chūchā), Sinhalese සිස් (sis), හිස් (his), Phalura tuúš, Persian تهی (tohi) and, more distantly, with Russian тощий (toščij), Polish czczy, Serbo-Croatian та̏шт (tȁšt), Lithuanian tùščias, Latvian tukšs, Estonian tühi, Finnish tyhjä, and Proto-Samic *tuššē. Most New Indo-Aryan languages, including Bengali, went through the following semantic shift: "empty, vain" > "useless" > "base, contemptible (person)".
ছুঁচা • (chũca)