सस्ता

See also: सुस्त and सुस्ती

Hindi

Etymology

Unclear.^[1] Cognate to Punjabi ਸਸਤਾ (sastā), Nepali सस्तो (sasto), Gujarati સસ્તું (sastũ), Sindhi سَستو (sasto), Bengali সস্তা (śosta), Odia ଶସ୍ତା (śastā), Assamese সস্তা (xosta), Sylheti ꠢꠍꠔꠣ (hosta), and the hypercorrected Marathi स्वस्त (svasta) (earlier सस्त (sasta)).

The preservation of the cluster -st- universally rules out Sanskrit inheritance; most Indo-Aryan languages would have assimilated that to -tt-. Given the widespread distribution of the term, it would have been an early borrowing or a borrowing from an influential language.

Several theories have been put forward:

An assimilation of Classical Persian (sust, “languid, lazy; loose”), making it a doublet of सुस्त (sust).
Inherited from Sanskrit स्वस्थ (svastha, “healthy”).^[2]^[3] This is unlikely due to the regular simplification of consonant clusters in Middle Indo-Aryan; compare Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀣 (sattha), which would theoretically yield Hindi *साथा (sāthā) or *सत्था (satthā).
The likely wrong suggestion of inheritance from Sanskrit समर्घ (samargha, “having a low price”).^[4] This already yielded Hindi सहँगा (sahaṅgā, “cheap”), which is not very common now. The only redeeming quality of this suggestion is that offers a direct contrast to Hindi महंगा (mahaṅgā, “expensive”), from Sanskrit महार्घ (mahārgha, “having a high price”). Compare Old Marathi सवंग (savaṃga), Gujarati સોંઘું (soṅghũ).^[5]

Pronunciation

(Delhi) IPA^(key): /səs.t̪ɑː/, [sɐs.t̪äː]

Adjective

सस्ता • (sastā) (Urdu spelling سستا)

cheap, inexpensive
Antonym: महंगा (mahaṅgā)

स्थानीय प्रकाशक की छपी हुई पुस्तकें सस्ती होतीं हैं।
sthānīya prakāśak kī chapī huī pustakẽ sastī hotī̃ ha͠i.
The books printed by the local publisher are inexpensive.
- 1882, Lālā Śrīnivāsdās, Parīkṣā Guru:
  उन्हें लिखा था कि मैंने बहुत सस्ता समझ कर इस्समय एक गांव साठ हज़ार रुपे में खरीद लिया है […]
  unhẽ likhā thā ki ma͠ine bahut sastā samajh kar issamay ek gāmv sāṭh hazār rupe mẽ kharīd liyā hai […]
  They wrote to them saying that at this time I had bought a town for seven thousand rupees thinking it to be very cheap.

Declension

Declension of *सस्ता* (ā-stem)
	masculine		feminine
	singular	plural	singular	plural
direct	सस्ता sastā	सस्ते saste	सस्ती sastī	सस्ती sastī
oblique	सस्ते saste	सस्ते saste	सस्ती sastī	सस्ती sastī
vocative	सस्ते saste	सस्ते saste	सस्ती sastī	सस्ती sastī

References

^ McGregor, Ronald Stuart (1993) “सस्ता”, in The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, London: Oxford University Press
^ Dāsa, Śyāmasundara (1965–1975) “सस्ता”, in Hindī Śabdasāgara [lit. Sea of Hindi words] (in Hindi), Kashi [Varanasi]: Nagari Pracarini Sabha
^ Platts, John T. (1884) “सस्ता”, in A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English, London: W. H. Allen & Co.
^
^{The template Template:R:Fallon does not use the parameter(s): 1=ur
2=سستا
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.}S. W. Fallon (1879) “सस्ता”, in A New Hindustani-English Dictionary, Banaras, London: Trubner and Co.
^ Shankar Gopal Tulpule, Anne Feldhaus (1999) “सवंग”, in A Dictionary of Old Marathi, Mumbai: Popular Prakashan