Cheapjack in Hindi
Meaning, Devanagari spelling and pronunciation
The meaning of “cheapjack” in Hindi is सस्ता, pronounced sasta — it is a noun. Copy the Devanagari word above, hear how it is pronounced, and use it anywhere. To type words like this yourself, try our Hindi typing tool, or explore more words in the vocabulary sets.
a peddler of inferior goods
Unclear. 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 سست (sust, “languid, lazy; loose”), making it a doublet of सुस्त (sust).
# Inherited from Sanskrit स्वस्थ (svastha, “healthy”). 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”). This already yielded Hindi सहंगा (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).
Quick facts about “cheapjack”
Everything we know about this word at a glance.
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 سست (sust, “languid, lazy; loose”), making it a doublet of सुस्त (sust).
# Inherited from Sanskrit स्वस्थ (svastha, “healthy”). 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”). This already yielded Hindi सहंगा (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).
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