Etymology

This word is traditionally related to čukstēt ‎(“to whisper; to hiss, to sizzle”) and considered imitative of a snake's hissing noise. It seems more likely, though, that the sound symbolism has influenced (cf. dialectal variants ķūska, cūška), but not created, the word, which could then be derived from earlier *čuk-skā-, from *ķuk-, *tʲuk with a suffix -skā, from Proto-Baltic *tyuk-, from Proto-Indo-European *tewk-, *tūk-, from a stem *tew-, *stew- ‎(“to strike, to crush; to pierce”) (whence also Middle Low German stoken ‎(“to stab, to prickle”), German stochern ‎(“to pick, to poke”), Sanskrit दति ‎(tudáti, “to push, to strike, to jab, to pierce”)). The original meaning of čūska was “one who stabs, pokes, pierces” (cf. dialectal verb čūkāt, čūskāt ‎(“to pick, to poke”), čuslis ‎(“long, pointed skewer; oven poker”)), and it was at first a nickname which replaced the earlier term odze, now restricted to a specific type of snake (“viper”).^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [tʃūska]