સસ્તું

Gujarati

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

Theories

An assimilation of Classical Persian (sust, “languid, lazy; loose”), making it a doublet of સુસ્ત (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 સોંઘું (soṅghũ, “cheap”), which is not very common now. The only redeeming quality of this suggestion is that offers a direct contrast to મોંઘું (moṅghũ, “expensive”), from Sanskrit महार्घ (mahārgha, “having a high price”). Compare Hindi सहँगा (sahaṅgā, “cheap”), Old Marathi सवंग (savaṃga).^[5]

સસ્તું • (sastũ)

Declension of સસ્તું
	nominative		oblique/vocative/instrumental		locative
	singular	plural	singular	plural	locative
masculine	સસ્તો (sasto)	સસ્તા (sastā)	સસ્તા (sastā)	સસ્તા (sastā)	સસ્તે (saste)
neuter	સસ્તું (sastũ)	સસ્તાં (sastā̃)	સસ્તા (sastā)	સસ્તાં (sastā̃)	સસ્તે (saste)
feminine	સસ્તી (sastī)	સસ્તી (sastī)	સસ્તી (sastī)	સસ્તી (sastī)
Note: If the noun being modified is unmarked, then the masculine and neuter locatives do not apply.

^ 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.
^ S. W. Fallon (1879) “سستا”, 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