Meanings
plural shishyas
- In Indian traditions: a disciple who receives spiritual knowledge from a guru.
1 more example
That winter night, everybody was drinking rum that we, the visiting party, had brought with us from Calcutta. One of the Babaji's young shishyas had got into a close and personal tangle with the liquor, drinking faster than everybody else, and the old guru was admonishing him about overdoing the Old Monk before sending him off to bed.
2018 August 20, Ruchir Joshi, “Free Spirit”, in India Today, Noida, Uttar Pradesh: Living Media India Limited, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Mar 2022
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱeh₁s-“to teach, to indicate”
- Sanskritशास्“to teach, instruct”
- Sanskritशिष्य
- Hindiशिष्य“disciple, student”
- Englishshishya
Borrowed from Hindi शिष्य (śiṣya, “disciple, student”), from Sanskrit शिष्य (śiṣya), from Sanskrit शास् (śās, “to teach, instruct”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeh₁s- (“to teach, to indicate”).
More words from Hindi, Sanskrit, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
shishya. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shishya
“shishya.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shishya. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shishya,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shishya.
Source: shishya on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.