Following on from our news story on Dooku being pronounced Dough-Ku (click here), and its Japanese pronunciation meaning poison, ThePete chimes in with another possible meaning:

I am reading this book called "Uriel's Machine:The Ancient Origins of Science". It delves into a number of ancient cultures. One of which is the Canaan culture (Canaanites were the folks that lived in Israel before the Jews) and apparently there was a Canaanite term "duku" which (and I'm quoting from the book here) "signified a 'holy mound', but literally meant 'birthing determiner'."

I thought this was a very nice thing for Lucas to include since it is alleged that SPOILER (highlight to read) Dooku is the guy creating all the clones. Or you might say, the determiner of the birth of the clones... (end of spoiler).

Update 1: This in from Dane:

In Buddhism, there's a word called Duhkha (doo-ka), which is not easily translated into English. I quote from Steve Hagen's book, Buddhism, Plain and Simple (ISBN 0-7679-0332-3):

"Duhkha is often translated as "suffering." But this only gets at part of what the word means, because pleasure is also a form of duhkha....Duhkha actually comes from a Sanskrit word that refers to a wheel out of kilter.... The first truth of the buddha dharma likens human life to this out-of-kilter wheel. Something basic and important isn't right. It bothers us, makes us unhappy, time after time. With each turn of the wheel, each passing day, we experience pain."

The Dark Side is certainly out of kilter, and much of the spiritual undertones of Star Wars come from Buddhism, it seems.

Update 2: This in from Antonio:

I see a fan or someone has said Dooku could be a take on the Buddhist idea of dukkha [correct spelling here]. But in Buddhism "dukkha" [pronounced THOO-kah] does indeed mean "the suffering ways of the world".

The Japanese take on the word "doku" is good as Lucas borrows from Japanese most often. Problem is that "doku" which has varied other meanings is pronounced DOKE, rhymes with JOKE.

Update 3: Dane adds:

Not to make this an ongoing ugly debate, but the spellings of duhkha and the pronunciation are directly from the Steve Hagen book. He is a Zen priest who has studied Buddhism for thirty years and has received his Dharma Transmission (endorsement to teach).