śśaysda-

Khotanese

Etymology

Epithet replacing older word, cf. Avestan 𐬯𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬰𐬛- (siiazd-, “to creep”), Av. Yasna 34·9 syazdaṯ yavaṯ ahmaṯ aurunā xrafstrā ‘withdraws as much as the wild xrafstra- creatures from us’; Avestan 𐬯𐬌𐬲𐬛𐬭𐬀- (siždra-, “shy, shrinking away”); verbal Avestan 𐬯𐬌𐬲𐬛𐬌𐬌𐬀- (siždiia-, “drive away; withdraw”).

Compare Manichaean Parthian syzdyft (uδ paδ sizdīft (syazdīft) būδ āgas ō sātān ‘and in trepidation appeared before Satan’); Manichaean Parthian syzdyn (hwyn wčn syzdyyn ‘their alarming voice’; syzdyn zʼwrʼn ‘fearful powers’; syzdyn pd čyhrg; pd syzdyft) translated by ‘overwhelming’ presumably more strictly ‘repellent’.

Cf. Tumshuqese 1·1. śazdā sālye ‘in the Snake year’.

From Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- ‘beside’ Pok. 538-9 kei- ‘move’, with increments k̂i̮-es-d-.

Noun

śśaysda- n

snake
- 1951, H. W. Bailey, Khotanese Buddhist Texts, Tailor's Foreign Press, 136·868:
  maistyau śaysdyau
  ‘by great snakes’, parallel Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit महोरग (mahoraga).
- 1954, H. W. Bailey, Khotanese Texts II, Cambridge at the University Press, 119·167:
  śaysda salya
  ‘the Snake year’, year 6 in the twelve animal cycle.
- 1951, H. W. Bailey, Khotanese Buddhist Texts, Tailor's Foreign Press, 143·1053:
  mistyau śaysdāna rruṃdyau jsa āysdaḍä hime
  ‘is protected by kings of great snakes’
  - Tib.
    ལྟོ་འཕྱེ་ཆེན་པོའི་དབྱང་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་བསམས་པར་གྱུ་རྟོ།
    lto 'phye chen-po'i dbang-po thams-cad-kyis bsams-par gyurto
- 1951, H. W. Bailey, Khotanese Buddhist Texts, Tailor's Foreign Press, The maxim of snake and rope, 69·220-1:
  śaystä ttiña gīskañi gvāna ttrāmāma dyāma niśti
  ‘there is not at all entrance (or) seeing of a snake in this rope’
- 1956, H. W. Bailey, Khotanese Texts III, Cambridge at the University Press, 74·199:
  śaysdä hamye
  ‘became a snake’
- Or. 11252^[1]:
  śaysdi salya hvai ysaiyi ūtcai pha hime u bāri pha hime u barījai śiri hire ni himāre u āchai pha hime hvaṃḍi mirāṃre u daina pvąṃṇe cu hve ysyāṇe buysa-jsīnī hime
  ‘Snake year. A man is born. For him water abounds and much rain falls and crops are not good things, and disease abounds, men die and there is a fear of fire. When a man begets children, they are long-lived.’

Declension

Old Khotanese Declension of *śśaysda-* [a-stem, neutral]
Note: Not all forms are attested.
—	singular	plural
nominative	śśaysdä	śśaysde
vocative	*śśaysda	śśaysdyau
accusative	*śśaysdu	śśaysde
genitive-dative	śśaysdi	śśaysdānu
instrumental-ablative	*śśaysdäna	*śśaysdyau jsa
locative	*śśaśda^{[note 1]}	*śśaysduvǫ

^ palatalization

References

^ Bailey, H. W. “Hvatanica.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, vol. 8, no. 4, 1937, pp. 923–36. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3488483. Accessed 19 Sept. 2025.

Bailey, H. W. (1979), Dictionary of Khotan Saka, Cambridge, London, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University press, page 395

[2] talization

[1] Bailey, H. W. “Hvatanica.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, vol. 8, no. 4, 1937, pp. 923–36. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3488483. Accessed 19 Sept. 2025.

[1]

[note 1]