खुशी

In Hindi and Urdu, khush (खुश) means 'happy' or 'pleased,' from Persian. British soldiers in India adopted 'cushy' (their spelling of khushi) to describe assignments that were pleasant — easy postings, comfortable billets, jobs that didn't get you killed.

The word spread through military slang during World War I. A 'cushy' wound was one serious enough to get you sent home but not serious enough to kill you — the wound every soldier secretly hoped for.

By the mid-20th century, 'cushy' had lost its military specificity. A cushy job, a cushy number, a cushy life — any comfortable situation that required little effort. The happy Hindi word became the easy English one.

The colonial irony is sharp: British soldiers used an Indian word for 'pleasant' to describe the parts of their Indian service that weren't miserable. The occupiers borrowed the occupied's word for happiness.