जान-काह

Meaning

Soul-consuming, life-draining, excruciating, agonizing, or fatal.

Detailed Meaning

Literally meaning 'life-reducing' or 'soul-exhausting', this adjective describes acute grief, torment, or lamentation that drains the very life force. In the given couplet, it qualifies 'नाला' (lament/wail), depicting cries of sorrow so agonizing that they sap the speaker's vitality and reverberate from the garden. It encapsulates the classical trope of suffering that wears down the spirit almost to death.

Etymology

Persian compound of 'jān' (جان, soul/life) and the present stem 'kāh' (کاہ, from 'kāhīdan' meaning to diminish, waste away, or consume).

Usage

Commonly forms an izafat with words like 'नाला' (lament), 'ग़म' (sorrow), or 'दर्द' (pain) to intensify the fatal severity of love's torment in Urdu ghazals.

Examples

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Related Words