I have been trying to look into the etymology of “dukkha”. On wikipedia, it mentions: “the term dukkha has often been derived from the prefix du (“bad” or “difficult”) and the root kha (“empty,” “hole”), meaning a badly fitting axle-hole of a cart or chariot giving “a very bumpy ride,it may actually be derived from duḥ-stha, a “dis-/ bad- + stand-“, that is, “standing badly, unsteady,” “unstable.”
Joseph Goldstein, American vipassana teacher and writer, explains the etymology as follows:
The word dukkha is made up of the prefix du and the root kha. Du means “bad” or “difficult”. Kha means “empty”. “Empty”, here, refers to several things—some specific, others more general. One of the specific meanings refers to the empty axle hole of a wheel. If the axle fits badly into the center hole, we get a very bumpy ride. This is a good analogy for our ride through saṃsāra.
The meaning of su is quite apparent to me, but I’m not very sure what “kha” is?
What I can find and other materials not mentioned for shorter posting:
Source: BuddhaSasana: Concise Pali-English Dictionary
kha : (nt.) space; sky.
Source: Sutta: The Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary
Kha, syllable & ending, functioning also as root, meaning “void, empty” or as n. meaning “space”; expld. by Bdhgh with ref. to dukkha as “khaṃ saddo pana tucche; tucchaṃ hi ākāsaṃ khan ti vuccati” <abbr title=”Visuddhi-magga”>Vism. 494.—In meaning “space, sky” in cpd. khaga “sky-goer”
PD post:
“Dukkha (dukha+khya) means there is hidden suffering AND that suffering can be eliminated (khya is removal”.
Would like to ask for others teachings or explanations on other possible meanings of “kha” that I might have missed or not brought up.