Translingual

Letter

स (sa)

1. The third sibilant of the Devanagari script. Linguistically it is considered an alveolar sibilant.

See also

Ligatures:

• स्त्र (stra): स + त + र

Hindi

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [sə]

Letter

स • ‎(sa)

1. The thirty-second consonant in Hindi.
2. (music) The first note of the Hindi musical scale.

See also

• (Devanagari script letters) अ,‎ आ,‎ इ,‎ ई,‎ उ,‎ ऊ,‎ ऋ,‎ ए,‎ ऐ,‎ ओ,‎ औ,‎ अं,‎ अः,‎ अँ,‎ क,‎ ख,‎ ग,‎ घ,‎ ङ,‎ च,‎ छ,‎ ज,‎ झ,‎ ञ,‎ ट,‎ ठ,‎ ड,‎ ढ,‎ ण,‎ त,‎ थ,‎ द,‎ ध,‎ न,‎ प,‎ फ,‎ ब,‎ भ,‎ म,‎ य,‎ र,‎ ल,‎ व,‎ श,‎ ष,‎ स,‎ ह,‎ त्र,‎ ज्ञ,‎ क्ष,‎ क़,‎ ख़,‎ ग़,‎ ज़,‎ झ़,‎ ड़,‎ ढ़,‎ ष़ ^{(Category: Hindi letters) [edit]}

Sanskrit

Etymology 1

Letter

स • ‎(sa)

1. the last of the three sibilants, /s/

Etymology 2

Noun

स • ‎(sa)

1. (prosody) an anapest

Etymology 3

Abbreviation

स • ‎(sa)

1. (in music) an abbreviated term for षड्ज ‎(ṣaḍ-ja)

Etymology 4

Noun

स • ‎(sa) m

1. a snake
2. air, wind
3. a bird
4. name of Vishnu or Shiva

Declension

Noun

स • ‎(sa) n

1. knowledge
2. meditation
3. a carriage road
4. a fence

Declension

Etymology 5

From the root √san ‎(√san, “to procure, bestow, give, distribute”).

Adjective

स • ‎(sa)

1. procuring, bestowing (only at the end of a compound)

   पशुष ‎(paśu-ṣá) — bestowing cattle

   प्रियस ‎(priyá-sá) — granting desired objects

Etymology 6

From Proto-Indo-Iranian *sá, *sā, *tád, from Proto-Indo-European *só, *séh₂, *tód. Cognate with Ancient Greek ὁ ‎(ho), ἡ ‎(hē), τό ‎(tó), Old Church Slavonic тъ ‎(tŭ) та ‎(ta), то ‎(to), and Old English se (English the). Confer also suppletive-stem feminine and neuter forms सा ‎(sā), तद् ‎(tad).

Pronoun

स • ‎(sá) m

1. (3rd person pronoun) he

Declension

Usage notes

The final s of the nominative m sás is dropped before all consonants (except before /p/ in RV. v, 2, 4, and before /t/ in RV. viii, 33, 16) and appears only at the end of a sentence in the form of visarga. sa occasionally blends with another vowel (as in saī*ṣaḥ) and it is often for emphasis connected with another pronoun as with अहम् ‎(aham), त्वम् ‎(tvam), एष ‎(eṣa), अयम् ‎(ayam) etc.

so 'ham sa tvam — I (or thou) that very person; cf. under तद् ‎(tád)

The verb then following in the 1st and 2nd person even if aham or tvam be omitted

sa tvā pṛcchāmi — I that very person ask you

sa vai no brūhi — do thou tell us

Similarly, to denote emphasis, with भवान् ‎(bhavān)

sa bhavān vijayāya pratiṣṭhatām — let your Highness set out for victory

It sometimes (and frequently in the Brāhmaṇas) stands as the first word of a sentence preceding a relatve pronoun or adverb such as य ‎(ya), यद् ‎(yad), यदि ‎(yadi), यथा ‎(yathā), चेद् ‎(ce*d); in this position sa may be used pleonastically or as a kind of indeclinable, even where another gender or number is required

sa yadi sthāvarā āpo bhananti — if those waters are stagnant

In the Sāṃkhya sa, like एष ‎(eṣa), क ‎(ka), and य ‎(ya), is used to denote पुरुष ‎(puruṣa), "the Universal Soul".

Etymology 7

Prefix

स • ‎(sa)

1. an inseparable prefix expressing "junction", "conjunction", "possession" (as opposed to a privative), "similarity", "equality"
2. when compounded with nouns to form adjectives and adverbs it may be translated by "with" , "together or along with", "accompanied by", "added to", "having", "possessing", "containing", "having the same"

   सकोप ‎(sa-kopa) — full of anger, enraged, displeased

   साग्नि ‎(sā*gni) — together with the fire

   सभार्य ‎(sa-bhārya) — with a wife, having a wife

   सद्रोण ‎(sa-droṇa) — with a droṇa added to a droṇa

   सधर्मन् ‎(sa-dharman) — having the same duties

   सवर्ण ‎(sa-varṇa) — having the same colour or appearance, similar, like

3. "-ly"

   सकोपम् ‎(sa-kopam) — angrily

   सोपधि ‎(so*padhi) — fraudulently

References

• Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1898) A Sanskrit-English dictionary etymologically and philologically arranged with special reference to cognate Indo-European languages, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 1111