MWW 57: Хөшөө

Cyrillic	хөшөө
Transcription	höshöö
IPA	[xɵ.ˈʃɵ:]
Layman’s Pronunciation	hoo-SHOO
Translation	statue, monument
In Genghis Khan’s time it was kösiye.
Plural: хөшөөнүүд; Genitive: хөшөөний.

You may recognize хөшөө from my last post about Хөшөө Цайдам. Хөшөө is usually glossed as "statue," but its sense is much broader than English "statue," and covers most kinds of monuments, including steles, obelisks, and gravestones. Any of these, if well-done, may be praised as a гэрэлт хөшөө, "statue with light," which does not literally mean that the monument is lighted, but rather that it is brilliant. The near synonym дурсгал (dursgal) is often paired with хөшөө as the compound word хөшөө дурсгал, which also means "monument." Other terms include:

• булшны хөшөө - gravestone
• оршуулгын хөшөө - cairn
• шарилын хөшөө - cross, hearse
• бичигт хөшөө - stele
  
• дайны хөшөө дурсгал - war memorial
• Эрх чөлөөний хөшөө - The Statue of Liberty
• хөшөө цутгах - cast a monument
• хөшөө босгох - erect a monument

I suspect that хөшөө is related to the verb хөших, which means 'congeal, freeze, harden, stiffen, set.' In medicine, it describes stupor, paralysis, catalepsy, and rigor mortis. Applied to emotions, it refers to being stopped by extreme fear or laughter, as in the idiom элэг хөших, 'laugh hard,' literally 'the liver stiffens.' Both must be related to хөшүүн, which can mean 'statuesque,' 'stubborn,' 'inflexible, inelegant, impractical, immovable' and 'angular, cross-grained.'

(I wonder if any of these are related to хөшүүрэгдэх, 'hunt a bear by barring the exit from its lair with crossed logs.')

Afterthought

As for the second part of the name, Цайдам is also the Mongolian name of a location in western China which is usually spelled Qaidam in English. Wikipedia says the name is derived from the Tibetan word ཚྭའི་འདམ (tshwa'i 'dam) "salt marsh" [X]. (I checked the translation at the "THL Tibetan to English Translation Tool": http://www.thlib.org/reference/dictionaries/tibetan-dictionary/translate.php. Tshwa = salt, 'i = genitive suffix, 'dam = marsh.) This would make Хөшөө Цайдам something like "Monument Marsh." However Хөшөө Цайдам did not seem any marshier to me than the rest of the countryside. Maybe it was drained?