kiška

kiška

Lithuanian

Etymology

Cognate with Latvian ciska (“thigh”).

    Etymology details

One hypothesis links this to Sanskrit किष्कु (kiṣku, “forearm”), but this has difficulties. Another hypothesis links this to Proto-Indo-European *koḱs- (“joint”), e.g. Sanskrit कक्ष (kakṣa, “armpit”), Latin coxa (“hip”). Fraenkel suggests (and Derksen concurs) that the vowel -i- is due to influence from kìnka (“thigh, haunch”). Endzelīns suggests that *kš metathesized to šk. Derksen disagrees and claims PIE *ḱs yields š in Lithuanian, and that the final -ka is due to influence from other words, such as kìnka

Noun

kiškà f (plural kìškos) stress pattern 2

1. thigh, haunch
2. (of a pair of pants) leg

Declension

declension of kiška

	singular (vienaskaita)	plural (daugiskaita)
nominative (vardininkas)	kiškà	kìškos
genitive (kilmininkas)	kìškos	kìškų
dative (naudininkas)	kìškai	kìškoms
accusative (galininkas)	kìšką	kiškàs
instrumental (įnagininkas)	kiškà	kìškomis
locative (vietininkas)	kìškoje	kìškose
vocative (šauksmininkas)	kìška	kìškos

Further reading

• “kiška”, in Lietuvių kalbos žodynas [Dictionary of the Lithuanian language], lkz.lt, 1941–2023
• Derksen, Rick (2015), “kiška”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Baltic Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 13), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 248