須臾

“48 minutes”

Semantic loan from Sanskrit मुहूर्त (muhūrta).

須臾

1. (literary) an instant

   • 吾嘗終日而思矣，不如須臾之所學也。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     吾尝终日而思矣，不如须臾之所学也。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Xunzi, c. 3^rd century BCE

     Wú cháng zhōngrì ér sī yǐ, bùrú xūyú zhī suǒ xué yě. [Pinyin]

     I have once engaged in thinking for the whole day, and it could not compare with a moment of learning.

2. (Buddhism, archaic) A unit of time consisting of one-thirtieth of a day (approximately 48 minutes).

   Synonym: 牟呼栗多 (móuhūlìduō)

Appears to be a shift in reading from suyu below, adopting the relatively newer kan'on reading of shu for the first character.

• (Tokyo) しゅゆ [shúꜜyù] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [ɕɨjɯ̟]

須(しゅ)臾(ゆ) • (shuyu) 

1. a short amount of time, a moment, an instant
2. (uncommon) a very small number, 10^-15

Probably from Middle Chinese 須臾 (MC sju yu). The goon reading, so likely the initial borrowing.

Ultimately derived as a meaning-based translation of Sanskrit मुहूर्त (muhūrta, “a moment, instant, any short space of time”), applied to the earlier phonetically transcribed term 牟呼栗多 (MC mjuw xu lit ta).^[2]

This reading appears to be less common than shuyu above.

• (Tokyo) すゆ [súꜜyù] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [sɨjɯ̟]

須(す)臾(ゆ) • (suyu) 

1. a short amount of time, a moment, an instant
2. (uncommon) a very small number, 10^-15