Etymology of Masihā

© Abhishek Avtans

In 1974, Hindi writer Vishnu Prabhakar published the biography of the legendary Bengali writer Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (1876-1938) titled ”आवारा मसीहा āvārā masīhā’ (The Wandering Messiah)’. In novel format, Prabhakar wrote the story of a vagabond (आवारा āvārā) who became the messiah (मसीहा masīhā) of the downtrodden. It took Vishnu Prabhakar 14 long years and visiting all the places where Sarat Chandra lived (including Burma) to write this biography. Amazingly ”आवारा मसीहा āvārā masīhā” is considered among the top three biographies ever read in Hindi literature. So where does the word masihā come from?

मसीहा masihā ( messiah) is an Arabic origin word in Indian languages. It came from Arabic مسيح masiḥā (the anointed one, in Hindi अभिषिक्त abhiṣikta) via Persian. Interestingly the word “Christ” is from the Greek loan translation Χριστός khrīstós of the Hebrew word משיח mashīah for an anointed one.
Masihā is also used with the Hindi names for Jesus Christ ईसा मसीह īsā masīh or येशु मसीह yeśu masīh or यीशु मसीह yīśu masīh.

Interesting to know that the word Christ shares the same root and meaning with Sanskrit घृत ghṛta (sprinkled, anointed) from verb root घृ ghṛ (to sprinkle, to wet, to shine) whence घृतम् ghṛtam (Ghee, clarified butter), thus घी ghī, ঘি ghi etc. In other words, Sanskrit घृत ghr̥ta (anointed) is from verb root घृ ghr̥ (to sprinkle, to wet), Christ is from Ancient Greek Χριστός khrīstós which has the verb root χρῑ́ω khrī́ō (to smear, to anoint). Both these roots share the same proto-Indo European root *gʰrey (to smear).

References

The American heritage dictionary of the English language (5th ed.). (2011). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Christ. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved January 1, 2024, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Christ

Monier-Williams, M., Leumann, E., & Cappeller, C. (1976). A Sanskrit-English dictionary : etymologically and philologically arranged with special reference to cognate Indo-European languages (New ed., greatly enl. and improved / with the collab. of E. Leumann, C. Cappeller, and other scholars, repr.). Motilal Banarsidas.

Steingass, Francis Joseph (1892). A Comprehensive Persian-English dictionary, including the Arabic words and phrases to be met with in Persian literature. London: Routledge & K. Paul.

Encyclopaedia of indian literature. (1987). Sahitya Akademi.

World Bible Translation Center-India. (2010). Pavitra bāibal. World Bible Translation Center.