mandapa

mandapas (plural)
mandap (alternative)
mandapam (alternative)
mantapa (alternative)

Borrowed from Sanskrit मण्डप (maṇḍapa), मण्टप (maṇṭapa, “pavilion, mandapa”), a non-native word likely from the same source as मठ (maṭha, “hut, hermit's cottage”). Probably derived via Hindi मंडप (maṇḍap) or another New Indo-Aryan language.

She led the way inside the house to the mandap.

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 44:

When she takes her place next to Lakshaya at the wedding mandap, both of them smile at each other.

2023, Radhika Iyengar, Fire on the Ganges, Fourth Estate, page 284:

(South Asia) A temporary platform or sacred tent used for a wedding or other religious ceremony.


current

en-adj

current (comparative currenter or more current, superlative currentest or most current)

currenter (comparative)
more current (comparative)
currentest (superlative)
most current (superlative)

courant (with both the hurry–furry merger and cure–fir merger)

From Middle English curraunt, borrowed from Old French curant (French courant), present participle of courre (“to run”), from Latin currere (“to run”) (present participle currens). Doublet of courant.

current bill

current shock

In April and May this year, the average daily current consumption dropped to 55 MU[…]Compared to household electricity charges, the current unit charge used by commercial companies is higher.[…]Electricity consumption is generally higher in summer as compared to monsoon and winter. The use of ACs will increase not only in homes but also in commercial establishments and current consumption will increase.

2021 June 13, Ravali Hymavathi, “Telangana: Even The TSSPDCL Is Facing Heavy Losses Due To Covid-19”, in The Hans India:

(South Asia) Electric; of or relating to electricity.


football

en-noun

football (countable and uncountable, plural footballs)

footballs (plural)
foot-ball (alternative dated)
foot ball (alternative dated)

⇒ Azerbaijani: futbol

desc

→ Bengali: ফুটবল (phuṭbol) (transliteration)

→ Bulgarian: фу́тбол (fútbol)

→ Czech: fotbal

desctree

→ Dutch: voetbal (calque)
→ Caribbean Hindustani: futbál khele

→ French: football

desc

→ Georgian: ფეხბურთი (pexburti) (calque)

→ German: Football

desctree

→ German: Fußball, Fussball (Switzerland, Liechtenstein, sometimes Luxembourg, South Tyrol) (calque)
→ English: foosball
⇒? Luxembourgish: Foussball

desc

→ Greek: ποδόσφαιρο (podósfairo) (calque)

→ Hebrew: כדורגל (calque)

→ Hindustani:

Hindi: फ़ुटबॉल (fuṭbŏl)

→ Hungarian: futball

→ Japanese: フットボール (futtobōru)

→ Korean: 풋볼 (putbol)

→ Latvian: futbols

→ Latvian: kājbumba (calque)

→ Lithuanian: fùtbolas

→ Macedonian: фу́дбал (fúdbal)

→ Maori: whutupōro

→ Maltese: futbol

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: fotball (calque)

desctree

→ Ottoman Turkish: فوتبول
Turkish: futbol

→ Polish: futbol

→ Polish: piłka nożna (calque)

→ Portuguese: futebol

→ Romanian: fotbal

→ Russian: футбо́л (futból)
→ Armenian: ֆուտբոլ (futbol)
→ Kazakh: футбол (futbol)

⇒ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: фу̏дба̄л

Latin script: fȕdbāl

→ Spanish: balompié (calque)

→ Spanish: fútbol, futbol (Mexico), fúbol
→ Guaraní: húvol
→? Tagalog: putbol

→ Swedish: fotboll (calque)
⇒ Finnish: futis

→ Thai: ฟุตบอล (fút-bɔn)

⇒ Tok Pisin: soka

⇒ Ukrainian: футбо́л (futból)

[ˈfʊʔt̚bɔːl]

[ˈfʊʔtʰbɔːl]

[ˈfʷʊʔt̚bɑɫ]

From Middle English fotbal, footbal, equivalent to foot + ball, which may refer to the act of kicking a ball with the feet or to the fact the game was played on foot (as opposed to on horseback or with players in fixed positions). The name for the briefcase is a play on “dropkick”, the code name of an early version of the nuclear war plan.

ավստրալական ֆուտբոլ

game in Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

ball

in all varieties of English and in all games called "football"

Each team scored three goals when they played football.

Association football
association football

(UK, Africa, Caribbean, South Asia, uncountable) Association football, also called soccer: a game in which two teams each contend to get a round ball into the other team's goal primarily by kicking the ball.


uncle

Bislama: angkel

→ Burmese: အန်ကယ် (ankai)

⇒ Chinese: 安哥 (āngē)

→ Hawaiian: ʻanakala

→ Hindi: अंकल (aṅkal)

→ Irish: uncail

→ Scottish Gaelic: uncail

Tok Pisin: ankol

Torres Strait Creole: ankel

→ Welsh: wncl

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwh₂os
Latin avunculus
Old French unclebor.
Middle English uncle
English uncle
From Middle English uncle, borrowed from Anglo-Norman uncle and Old French oncle, from Vulgar Latin *aunclum, from Latin avunculus (“maternal uncle”, literally “little grandfather”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂euh₂-n-tlo- (“little grandfather”), a dialectal diminutive of *h₂éwh₂ō (“grandfather, adult male relative other than one’s father”) (whence also Latin avus (“grandfather”)). Displaced native Middle English em (“uncle”) from Old English ēam (“maternal uncle”), containing the same Proto-Indo-European root, and Old English fædera (“paternal uncle”). Compare Saterland Frisian Unkel (“uncle”), Dutch nonkel (“uncle”), German Low German Unkel (“uncle”), German Onkel (“uncle”), Danish onkel (“uncle”). More at eam and eame.

der

(especially in the Southern US, parts of UK and South Asia) An affectionate term for a man of an older generation than oneself, especially a friend of one's parents, by means of fictive kin.

дзя́дзька

form of address to a man by young people or children in some countries


by

→ Mandarin: by (bāi), BY (bāi)

From Middle English by, bi, from Old English bī (“by; near; around”), from Proto-West Germanic *bī, from Proto-Germanic *bi (“near; by; around; about”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi.
Cognate with West Frisian by (“by; near”), Afrikaans by (“at; by; near”), Saterland Frisian bie (“near; by”), Dutch bij (“near; by”), German Low German bi (“by; near; at”), German bei (“by; near; at”).

inh

(mathematics) multiplied by or (chiefly South Asia) divided by


hotel

hotels (plural)
hôtel (alternative archaic)

→ Amharic: ሆቴል (hotel)

→ Assamese: হোটেল (hütel)

→ Bengali: হোটেল (hōṭel)

→ Burmese: ဟိုတယ် (huitai)

→ Hindi: होटल (hoṭal)

→ Japanese: ホテル (hoteru)

→ Khmer: ហោតិល (haotəl)

→ Korean: 호텔 (hotel)

→ Malay: hotel

→ Maori: hōtēra

→ Nepali: होटल (hoṭal)

→ Oromo: hoteela

→ Persian: هوتَل (hôtal) (Dari)

→ Swahili: hoteli

desc

→ Tamil: ஓட்டல் (ōṭṭal)

→ Tamil: ஓட்டல் (ōṭṭal)

→ Thai: โฮเต็ล (hoo-dtel)

→ Tigrinya: ሆቴል (hotel)

→ Tok Pisin: hotel

→ Ukrainian: готе́ль (hotélʹ)

→ Urdu: ہوٹل (hoṭal)

Borrowed from French hôtel, from Middle French hostel, from Old French ostel, from Late Latin hospitālis (“hospice, shelter, guesthouse”), from Latin hospitālis (“hospitable”). Doublet of hostel and hospital.

der

(South Asia) A restaurant; any dining establishment.


hostel

→ Hindi: हॉस्टल (hŏsṭal)

→ Japanese: ホステル (hosuteru)

→ Korean: 호스텔 (hoseutel)

→ Oromo: hosteela

From Middle English hostel, from Old French hostel, ostel, from Late Latin hospitale (“hospice”), from Classical Latin hospitalis (“hospitable”) itself from hospes (“host”) + -alis (“-al”). Doublet of hotel and hospital. Obsolete from the 16th to 18th centuries, until it was revived by Walter Scott.

(South Africa, South Asia) A university or school dormitory, a place of accommodation for students.


maidan

maidans (plural)
maidaun (alternative)
meidan (alternative)
meidaun (alternative)
midan (alternative)
mydan (alternative)

From Hindustani میدان (medān) / मैदान (maidān), and its source, Persian میدان (meydân, maydān, “town-square or central place of gathering”), from Arabic مَيْدَان (maydān), itself an Iranian borrowing (see the Arabic entry for more), from Proto-Iranian *madyānah, from *mádyah (“middle”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *mádʰyas, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos. Compare Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬜𐬌𐬌𐬀 (maⁱδiia), Sanskrit मध्य (madhya), Latin medius.

Inland, the prospect alters. There is an oval maidan, and a long sallow hospital.

1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 5:

Below on the amorphous brown-violet meidan by the railway station […].

1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine, Faber, page 84:

M. Crawford
a gallop on the green maidan

(chiefly South Asia) A marketplace or other open space in or by a city or town; an esplanade.


badmash

badmashes (plural)
badmaash (alternative)
budmash (alternative)

Borrowed from Hindustani بدمعاش (badm'āś) / बदमाश (badmāś) and its source, Persian بدمعاش (badma'âš), from بد (bad, “bad, evil”) + معاش (ma'âš, “life, livelihood”), ultimately from Arabic عَاشَ (ʕāša, “to live”). Compare lowlife, which is a similar formation in English.

‘However big a badmash one is – if one's happy in consequence, that's some justification.’

1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 102:

Once the five had left for the village, the Dutchman had immediately begun working on the badmash who had stood up to the havildar.

2013, Garry Douglas Kilworth, Rogue Officer:

His wife laughed. “You'll see purdahs when we reach Port Said.” “And a bazaar?” “That's a market!” “Who's a badmash?” “A bad man is called a badmash. I'm not a badmash. Am I?”

2014, Dr. Ulhas R. Gunjal, Home, Again!: A Novel of Identity, Self-Discovery, and Tragedy:

(British Pakistani, South Asia, British India) A rogue, ruffian or miscreant.


coss

cosses (plural)
coss (plural)
cos (alternative)
kos (alternative)
kós (alternative)
koss (alternative)

Borrowed from Hindustani کوس / कोस (kos). Doublet of krosa.

... the distances (computed by marching-time as well as by reference to the Népálese kós of 2⅓ miles each) ...

1857, Brian Houghton Hodgson, Selections from the Records of the Government of Bengal, No. XXVII: Papers Relative to the Colonization, Commerce, Physical Geography, &c., &c., of the Himalaya Mountains and Nepal, p. 85

A full half koss from bank to bank is the stream now – you can see it under the stars – and there are ten feet of water therein.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, 'In Flood Time', In Black and White, Folio Society, published 2005, pages 410–11:

(British India, South Asia) A measure of distance, varying from one and a quarter to two and a half English miles.


geyser

desc

→ Bengali: গিজার (gijar, “water boiler”)

→ Hindi: गीज़र (gīzar, “water heater”)

From the name of a particular Icelandic geyser which is mentioned as early as the 1760s in The Annual Register, as “Geyser, a wonderful spring in the valley of Haukadal”. From Geysir (“Gusher”), the Icelandic name of the hot spring in Iceland (see Wikipedia), from the verb geysa (“to gush”), from Old Norse geysa (“to gush”). Doublet of gusher.

(South Africa, South Asia) A domestic water boiler.


raj

Borrowed from Hindi राज (rāj), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ-. Doublet of rex, rich, and others.


ghee

en-noun

ghee (usually uncountable, plural ghees)

Borrowed from Hindustani گھی (ghī) / घी (ghī), from Sanskrit घृत (ghṛta, “sprinkled”). First attested in the late 17th century.

There are two kinds of ghee. Usli ghee or clarified butter is used rarely, partly because of its expense and partly because Indians consider it "heavy". The more commonly used ghee is a mixture of various vegetable oils.

1973, Madhur Jaffrey, An Invitation to Indian Cooking:


molly

(India, South Asia) Alternative spelling of mali (“a member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener”).


lakh

lakhs (plural)
lakh (plural)
lac (alternative)

Borrowed from Hindustani लाख or لاکھ (lākh), from Sanskrit लक्ष (lakṣa), from लक्ष् (lakṣ, “to mark; to sign; to observe, perceive”), possibly from रक्ष् (rakṣ, “to observe (a duty, law, etc.); to guard, protect”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂lek- (“to protect”).

der

They ſay the VVorld ſhall laſt foure Ages; or VVorlds, vvhereof three are paſt. The firſt laſted ſeuenteene Laches (euery Laches containeth a hundred thouſand yeares) and 28000 yeares. Men in that VVorld liued tenne thouſand yeares, vvere of great ſtature of bodie, and great ſinceritie of minde.

1613, Samuel Purchas, “[Asia.] Of the Great Mogor.”, in Purchas His Pilgrimage. Or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages and Places Discouered, from the Creation vnto this Present. […], London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, book V (Of the East-Indies: And of the Seas and Ilands about Asia, with Their Religions), page 406:

[T]he Mahrattas having offered Alimerdy Khan his liberty for a lak of Pagodas [a unit of currency]; he does in the Nabob's name desire that the Governor of Madras would receive jewels and money to that amount into his custody, […]

1693 January 2 (date written; Gregorian calendar), J[ames] Talboys Wheeler, compiler, “Governorship of Mr. Nathaniel Higginson. 1692–1698.”, in Madras in the Olden Time: Being a History of the Presidency from the First Foundation of the Governorship of Thomas Pitt, Grandfather of the Earl of Chatham. 1639–1702. […], Madras: […] J[oshua] Higginbotham, […], by Graves and Co., Scottish Press, published 1861, →OCLC, page 262:

[S]he had gone out to India to keep house for her expensive, raffish father, and she had lived there in splendid style even after her marriage to a penniless young man, her father's aide-de-camp, […] But they were both killed in the same engagement against Tippoo Sahib, her father owing ten lakhs of rupees and her husband nearly half that sum.

1972, Patrick O’Brian, Post Captain, London: HarperCollinsPublishers, published 1998, →ISBN, page 18:

After a hunt lasting more than a year-and-a-half, police have arrested a couple for duping around 2 lakh people in one of India's biggest investment frauds involving an estimated Rs 1,100 crore.

2012 November 13, Neeraj Chauhan, Dwaipayan Ghosh, “Couple from Maharashtra held for Rs 1,100 crore stock scam”, in The Times of India, Mumbai, Maharashtra: The Times Group, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-09-22:

According to data published in WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record, India's annualised non-polio AFP rate for 2011 stood at 15.06 per one lakh children below 15 years of age, compared to a global rate that year of 5.48.

2013 January 3, N. Gopal Raj, “Polio free does not mean paralysis free”, in The Hindu, Chennai, Tamil Nadu: THG Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2013-01-05:

One hundred thousand (100,000; or, with Indian digit grouping, 1,00,000).


pukka

en-adj

pukka (comparative more pukka, superlative most pukka)

more pukka (comparative)
most pukka (superlative)
pacca (alternative)
pakka (alternative)
pucka (alternative)
pucca (alternative)

From Hindi पक्का (pakkā, “certain, sure”), Punjabi ਪੱਕਾ (pakkā, “mature, ripe; cooked; strong, substantial; genuine, sound, true, valid”) and Urdu پکا (pakkā, “mature, ripe; cooked; strong, substantial; genuine, sound, true, valid”), from Sanskrit पक्व (pakva, “baked, cooked, roasted”), from पचति (pacati, “to bake, cook, roast”).

der

Maha Rajah said it was necessary to witness it to make it pukka; and they said so too, and then signed it.

1775 June 8, T[homas] B[ayly] Howell, comp., “556. The Trial of Maha Rajah Nundocomar Bahader, for Forgery. At Calcutta, in the Province of Bengal: 15 George III, a.d. 1775. [Published by Authority of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal. London: Printed for T[homas] Cadell in the Strand, 1776.]”, in A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, with Notes and Other Illustrations, volumes XX (A.D. 1771–1777), London: Printed by T. C. Hansard, Peterborough-Court, Fleet-Street; for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown; [et al.], published 1814, →OCLC, column 1051:

The measures which resulted in the crushing of the mutiny within the Five Rivers, were unquestionably pukka. […] Pukka and kucha statesmanship are, indeed, two things which time rarely fails to detect, just as it tries the durability of a public building or a bridge.

1857 December, “Art IV. A Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms, and of Useful Words Occurring in Official Documents, Relating to the Administration of the Government of British India, from the Arabic, Persian, Hindustani, Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Uriya, Marathi, Guzarathi, Telugu, Karnata, Tamil, Malayalam, and Other Languages. By H[orace] H[ayman] Wilson, M.A.F.R.S.”, in Thomas Smith, editor, The Calcutta Review, volume XXIX, number LVIII, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co., →OCLC, page 368:

Mrs. S[mart].— […] Are you not aware, Fanny, that he [Lieut. Marsden] is only Acting-Assistant Sub-Deputy Inspector? Do you imagine that I should give my child to a man whose appointment was not pucka? / F[anny].—But, Mamma, is Mr. Cholmondeley's appointment pucka? / Mrs. S.—How can you talk such nonsense, child? […] Mr. Cholmondeley is a landed gentleman, and draws twelve thousand rupees a month from his estates in Derbyshire, besides holding Government paper to a large amount.

1863, H. Broughton [pseudonym; Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet], The Dawk Bungalow; or, “Is His Appointment Pucka?” … Acted at Belvidere, Dec. 21, 1863, Calcutta: Published by Messrs. Thacker, Spink, and Co., →OCLC, act I, page 10:

'No one else here?' he said. 'I thought we were going to have a pukka consultation with all the crowd present – decorations, banners, and salute of guns!'

1929, Margery Allingham, “Mr Watt Explains”, in The Crime at Black Dudley, London: Jarrolds, →OCLC; republished London: Vintage Books, [2015?], →ISBN, page 108:

But let's assume it's a real pukka rare bird.

1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 74:

Among [Max] Le Blond's exhortations was the need for Singapore theatre to internalise "the conviction that our lives as Singaporeans possess the same theatrical validity, […] [as] the English literary tradition"[…]. This would involve ridding ourselves of a residual colonial consciousness, even at the subliminal level, and revising our perception of the vernacular idiom and local accents, hitherto regarded as non-pukka.

1999, K[hiam] K[eong] Seet, “Singapore Drama and Theatre in English”, in Chua Beng Huat, editor, Singapore Studies II: Critical Surveys of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Singapore: Published by Singapore University Press for the Centre for Advanced Studies, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, →ISBN, page 84:

(originally South Asia) Genuine or authentic; hence of behaviour: correct, socially acceptable or proper.

The popular classification of wells is, however, into pukka and kuchcha. Percolation wells are usually pukka or brickbuilt. Spring wells are of three kinds—(1) pukka, where the sub-soil to the spring is sandy, and masonry is necessary througout; […] (3) kuchcha wells, made of clay throughout.

1875, Edwin T. Atkinson, “Irrigation from All Sources”, in Statistical, Descriptive and Historical Account of the Aligarh District. Prepared, under Orders of the Govt. of India, Allahabad: North-Western Provinces Government Press, →OCLC, page 381:

In some cases, the sericulturists avail of credit facility and construct a pukka shed for the silk worms. It is ironical, however, that they have to accommodate themselves and their children in a shabby hut.

The kutcha house made of mud, bamboo, and thatch and its modern replacement the pukka house, constructed of fired bricks, cement, and steel.

2024 January 1, Billie Faircloth, Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen, Martin Tamke, Design for Climate Adaptation: Proceedings of the UIA World Congress of Architects Copenhagen 2023, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 122:

(South Asia, of a building) Permanent; built with high-quality materials (especially fired clay bricks and tiles as opposed to unfired mud and thatch).


quantum

en-noun

quantum (countable and uncountable, plural quantums or quanta)

[ˈkʰwɑ̃ntʰə̃m]

[ˈkʰwɑ̃ɾ̃ə̃m]

From Late Latin quantum, noun use of neuter form of Latin quantus (“how much”).

(now chiefly South Asia or law) The total amount of something; quantity.

(law) The amount of compensation awarded to a successful party in a lawsuit.

(law) The length or magnitude of the sentence handed down to someone who has been found guilty of a crime.

The reader will perhaps be curious to know the quantum of this present, but we cannot satisfy his curiosity.

1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 416:

A certain quantum of power must always exist in the community, in some hands, and under some appellation.

1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford, published 2009, page 142:

Otherwise I will have given the lie to my maxim that whether you work eight or twenty hours, the quantum of work that gets done on a normal day is the same.

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 375:

The Congress's core ministerial panel on Friday gave its green signal to raising motor fuel prices but the quantum of increase emerged as a hitch.


jungle

jungle (countable and uncountable, plural jungles)

→ Catalan: jungla

→ Czech: džungle

→ Danish: jungle

→ Dutch: jungle

→ French: jungle
→ Romanian: junglă

desctree

→ German: Dschungel, Tschungel
→ Hungarian: dzsungel

→ Esperanto: ĝangalo

→ Italian: giungla

→ Japanese: ジャングル (janguru)

→ Korean: 정글 (jeonggeul)

→ Polish: dżungla

→ Russian: джу́нгли (džúngli)
→ Armenian: ջունգլի (ǰungli)
→ Georgian: ჯუნგლი (ǯungli)

→ Serbo-Croatian: džungla

→ Slovak: džungľa

→ Slovene: džungla

→ Spanish: jungla

→ Swedish: djungel

→ Ukrainian: джу́нглі (džúnhli)

→ Welsh: jyngl

/ˈd͡ʒʌŋ.ɡ(ə)l/

Borrowed from Hindustani جَن٘گَل (jaṅgal) / जंगल (jaṅgal), from Sanskrit जङ्गल (jaṅgala, “arid, sterile, desert”). First appears c. 1776 in a translation by Nathaniel Halhed.

der

you can take the monkey out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the monkey

(South Asia) Any uncultivated tract of forest or scrub habitat.


sulla

Borrowed from Punjabi ਸੁੱਲਾ (sullā, “Muslim (derogatory)”), a mispronunciation (or perhaps a misspelling in Gurmukhi script) of Punjabi ਮੁੱਲਾ (mullā, “mullah, Islamic religious leader”), derived from Classical Persian ملا (mullā), from Arabic مُلَّا (mullā).

der

(South Asia, religious slur, ethnic slur, offensive) A Muslim man; especially one from Pakistan.


que

en-noun

que (countable and uncountable, plural ques)


lorry

lorries (plural)
larry (alternative)
lorrie (alternative)

→ Central Dusun: luri

→ Chichewa: lore

→ Hausa: lori

→ Iban: lori

→ Juba Arabic: lori

→ Malay: lori (“heavy truck”)

→ Tausug: lūri

→ Chinese: 羅里 (luólǐ), 羅厘 /罗厘 (luólí)

→ Chichewa: lore

→ Farefare: loore

→ German: Lore

→ Irish: leoraí

→ Malay: lori

→ Moore: lore

→ Scottish Gaelic: làraidh

→ Swahili: lori

→ Telugu: లారీ (lārī)

→ Welsh: lorri, lori

→ Zulu: iloli

Uncertain; perhaps from dialectal English lurry (“to lug or pull about, drag”), or from the forename Laurie. First attested in early to middle 19th century.

cog

But whenever one of the motor-trucks lumbering by bore a big U.S. on its rear panel Troy pushed his light ambulance ahead and skimmed past, just for the joy of seeing the fresh young heads rising pyramid-wise about the sides of the lorry, hearing the snatches of familiar songs—"Hail, hail, the gang's all here!" and "We won't come back till it's over over here!"—and shouting back in reply to a stentorian "Hi, kid, beat it!", "Bet your life I will, old man!"

1918, Edith Wharton, chapter IX, in The Marne, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, pages 87–88:

The railway is still vital to Jordan's export trade, but in spite of the poor quality of the road, diesel lorries are gradually robbing it of freight traffic, and anyone who can afford to fly does so rather than face the long desert journey by rail.

1956 March, R. C. Blaker, “The Hedjaz Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 167:

The most frequent age for starting in the actual occupation of lorry driving is 17 years. Trampers tend to start later, the mode amongst them being 19 years. The mean average age for beginning in lorry driving in the sample is between 21 and 23 years. The mean average number of years spent in lorry driving varies according to the type of driver.

1968, Peter G. Hollowell, “The Lorry Driver’s Career”, in The Lorry Driver (The International Library of Sociology; 154), London: Routledge and Kegan Paul; New York, N.Y.: Humanities Press, →OCLC; republished Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 1998 (2007 printing), →ISBN, page 61:

Until the main road from Hatfield to Hertford was diverted a few years ago, heavy lorries trundling through the village sometimes knocked chunks off corner buildings, but now the village has regained much of its former tranquillity.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 224, about Hertingfordbury:

Our journey through the streets of Singapore awoke strange emotions. Very little of the structural damage seemed to have been repaired beyond make-shift patchwork. The streets had a dingy and forlorn look. We arrived outside the British American Tobacco building and had our first experience of the shouting and hustlings that accompanied all Japanese supervision of our movements. We were shouted at to get out of the lorry with our baggage and make out way into the building.

1987, Richard Pool, “Prisoner of War”, in Course for Disaster: From Scapa Flow to the River Kwai, London: Leo Cooper, Heinemann, →ISBN, page 164:

The plantain lorry caught up with them in a blind curve. Jeff caught a glimpse of the driver's face in the mirror as he fought to swing the old truck out around the car. At that moment Jeff heard the sound of the horn of a vehicle coming up the road. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the old lorry beside him; its driver desperately trying to avoid the passenger lorry coming up the scarp.

2003, John C. Kennedy, “The Child”, in Last Lorry to Mbordo: Misadventures in Nation Building: A Novel, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 176:

At the platform in Pathankot, they must have overheard me asking the porter handling my luggage that I wanted to go to the lorry stand for Kashmir. [...] There were no buses then, some primitive contraptions called lorries. A far cry from the spacious and comfortable buses of the present day. They were not only rudimentary and crude, they also travelled very slow.

2005, Nagindra Mohan Kachroo, “Nostalgic Home Fires”, in Moments of Melancholy: (A Basket of Short Stories), New Delhi: S. B. Nangia, A. P. H. Publishing Corporation, →ISBN, page 129:

I know I swing me Volvo all around you market square. I know you think that lorry drivers, we just don't care. But the streets are so narrow, built so many years ago. They were built for horses' carts, not juggernauts you know.

2019, “I love my juggernaut”, in The Pothole Song Album, performed by Richie Kavanagh:

There was also the influx of a third of a million road lorries, sold at giveaway prices after their war roles ceased and used by competing one-man businesses to skim off sundry agricultural freight.

2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51:

(British, Ireland, South Asia, Africa) A large and heavy motor vehicle designed to carry goods or soldiers; a truck


gully

Borrowed from Hindustani گَلی (galī) / गली (galī); spelling probably influenced by other uses of this word.

Older boys play gali cricket, while young girls watch them shyly from a distance.

2023, Radhika Iyengar, Fire on the Ganges, Fourth Estate, page 3:

(chiefly South Asia) An alleyway or side street.


purdah

en-noun

purdah (countable and uncountable, plural purdahs)

purdahs (plural)
pardah (alternative)
purda (alternative)

Borrowed from Hindustani پردہ / पर्दा (pardā), and its etymon Classical Persian پرده (pardah, “curtain; screen; (archaic) veil”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat”).

der

As she passed through the dining-room she heard, behind the purdah that cloaked the drawing-room door, her husband's voice, […]

1909, Rudyard Kipling, “A Wayside Comedy”, in Under the Deodars (The Works of Rudyard Kipling), Edinburgh de Luxe edition, Boston, Mass., London: The Edinburgh Society, →OCLC, page 64:

"Come and see my wife a little then," said Hamidullah, and they spent twenty minutes behind the purdah.

1924 June 4, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter II, in A Passage to India, London: Edward Arnold & Co., →OCLC, part I (Mosque), page 11:

(countable, chiefly South Asia, also figuratively) A curtain, especially one used in some Hindu or Muslim traditions to conceal women from the gaze of people, particularly men and strangers.


lota

From Hindi लोटा (loṭā) / Urdu لوٹا (loṭā).
(person who switches loyalties): From the fact that the lota pot has a tendency to fall over and roll around, as it is not stable sitting on its base.

She had been standing behind the curtain of coloured glass beads for at least half an hour now, waiting patiently with a silver lota of water.

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 9:

(South Asia) A spherical pot, specifically a water pot used for washing and ablution, typically made of brass.


brickbat

The noun is derived from brick + bat (“a bit, piece; specifically, part of a brick with one whole end”). The verb is derived from the noun.

brickbats

small rocky particles moving as a group in space

[S]he sēt [sent] a brick back after him & hit him on þᵉ back, […]

[1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, “George Tākerfield [Tankerfield] a Faythful Martyr and Witnes of the Gospel, Constantly Suffering for the Testimonie of the Same”, in Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC, book V, page 1251 [1320]:

[Y]ᵉ body of King Charles the First was privately putt into the Sand about White-hall; and the coffin that was carried to Windsor and layd in K. Hen[ry] 8^(th's) vault was filled with rubbish, or brick-batts.

1687 February, John Aubrey, “Lotts”, in James Britten, editor, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, London: [F]or The Folk-lore Society by W. Satchell, Peyton, and Co., […], published 1881, →OCLC, page 91:

Fragments of glass kept company with the dust on the floor, together with a choice collection of stones, brickbats, and other missiles,—which not improbably were the cause of their being there.

1897 March 13 – June 19, Richard Marsh [pseudonym; Richard Bernard Heldmann], “What was Hidden under the Floor”, in The Beetle (The Adelphi Library; 4), London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, […], published 1920, →OCLC, book IV (In Pursuit), page 275:

No doubt he, like me, had been buoying himself up for years with the thought that we should never meet again and that, whatever brickbats life might have in store for him, he had at least got Bertram out of his system. A nasty jar it must have been for the poor bloke having me suddenly pop up from a trap like this.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter 3, in Jeeves in the Offing, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1963 (1975 printing), →OCLC, page 33:

A piece of brick, rock, etc., especially when used as a weapon (for example, thrown or placed in a sock or other receptacle and used as a club).

murikka

I beſeech ye friends, ere the brickbats flye, reſolve me and your ſelves, is it blasphemy, or any vvhit diſagreeing from Chriſtian meekneſſe, […] for me to anſvver a ſlovenly vvincer of a confutation, that, if he vvould needs put his foot to ſuch a ſvveaty ſervice, the odour of his Sock vvas like to be neither Musk, nor Benjamin?

1642 April, John Milton, An Apology for Smectymnuus; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 179:

Not honoured, hardly even envied; only fools and the flunkey-species so much as envy me. I am conspicuous,—as a mark for curses and brickbats. What good is it?

1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “The Didactic”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book IV (Horoscope), pages 292–293:

And Mr [Manmohan] Singh has little control over this mutinous mix; his party boss, Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of a murdered Congress leader, runs the show. This arrangement has assured Mr Singh many brickbats, and little freedom to dodge.

2008 June 26, “Manmohan Singh’s burning ambition”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-25:

A broken bone heals far more quickly and durably than the emotional and psychic injuries inflicted by a savage word, which is where the brickbat derives its power. The many libel and defamation suits that litter the courts show that the figurative brickbat hurts just as much as, if not more than, the literal one.

2020 February 7, Shashi Tharoor, “Shashi Tharoor’s Word of the Week: Brickbat”, in Hindustan Times, New Delhi: HT Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-21:

In a 60 Minutes interview last month, host Lesley Stahl read McConnell some other choice brickbats McConnell had reserved for Trump (“nasty,” “sleazeball,” “not very smart”), which the senator hilariously tried to downplay as “private comments.”

2025 March 7, Mark Leibovich, “Mitch McConnell and the President He Calls ‘Despicable’”, in The Atlantic:

(figurative) A piece of (sharp) criticism or a (highly) uncomplimentary remark.


brickbat

en-verb

brickbat (third-person singular simple present brickbats, present participle brickbatting, simple past and past participle brickbatted)

brickbats (present singular third-person)
brickbatting (participle present)
brickbatted (participle past)
brickbatted (past)

We had two boys arrested, both colored, for brick-batting a colored woman in her house. They were sent to the chaingang for 12 months each.

1904, “Crime in Georgia”, in W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, editor, Some Notes on Negro Crime, Particularly in Georgia […] (The Atlanta University Publications; 9), Atlanta, Ga.: Atlanta University Press, →OCLC, page 38:

To attack (someone or something) by swinging or throwing brickbats (noun sense 1).

heittää kiviä

to attack (someone or something) by swinging or throwing brickbats

(figurative) To assail (someone or something) with (sharp) criticism.

arvostella kärkevästi

to assail (someone or something) with (sharp) criticism


Hindustani

en-adj

Hindustani (comparative more Hindustani, superlative most Hindustani)

more Hindustani (comparative)
most Hindustani (superlative)
Hindoostane (alternative obsolete)
Hindostanee (alternative obsolete)
Hindoostanee (alternative obsolete)
Hindoostani (alternative obsolete)
Hindustanee (alternative obsolete)
Hindustane (alternative obsolete)
Hindōstāni (alternative obsolete)

Borrowed from Hindustani ہِنْدُوسْتانی (hindūstānī) / हिंदुस्तानी (hindustānī), from Classical Persian هِنْدُوسْتَانِی (hindūstānī), from هِنْدُو (hindū, “Hindu, Indian”) + ـسْتَان (-stān, “land”) + adjective suffix ـِی (-ī). Equivalent to Hindustan + -i.

der

هِنْدُوسْتَانِی

(dated outside of South Asia) Related to India, varying historically from the entire Indian subcontinent to India north of the Deccan, especially the plains of the Ganges and Jumna.

هِنْدُوسْتَانِيّ

related to India, or historically the entire Indian subcontinent


aloo

From Hindustani آلو (ālo) / आलू (ālū), ultimately from Sanskrit आलु (ālu), said to mean the edible root of a variety of Amorphophallus paeoniifolius.


badam

Borrowed from Hindustani बादाम (bādām) / بادام (bādām) and other South Asian languages, from Classical Persian بادام (bādām), from Middle Persian wʾtʾm (wādām).


tuan

"It gives you the Tuan touch. You learn to clap your hands to summon your coloured servants, instead of yelling...to drink stengahs, instead of plain whisky, to speak of lunch as tiffin...God help us!" He chuckled deeply.

1975, Xavier Herbert, Poor Fellow My Country, Sydney: Collins Publishers, published 1988, page 129:


nullah

nullahs (plural)
nala (alternative)
nalla (alternative)
nallah (alternative)
nulla (alternative)

Borrowed from Bengali নালা (nala), Hindi नाला (nālā), from Sanskrit नाडी (nāḍī).

About this time a large gole of horsemen came on towards me, and I proposed to charge; but as they turned at once from the fire of the guns, and as there was a nullah in front, I refrained from advancing after them.

1849, Brigadier Lockwood, Report of 2nd Cavalry Division at Battle of Goojerat:

It was just after the exit from a bridge; the animal had probably come up out of the nullah.

1924 June 4, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, A Passage to India, London: Edward Arnold & Co., →OCLC:

Until a few years ago, much of the city’s sewage was released untreated into the Ganges via public drains, or nullahs, which discharged along the same bank as the ghats, where people habitually bathe.

2023 November 30, Oliver Franklin-Wallis, “Inside India’s Gargantuan Mission to Clean the Ganges River”, in Wired, →ISSN:

(chiefly South Asia) A stream-bed, ravine, or other watercourse; a drain for rain or floodwater.


drumstick

drumsticks (plural)
drum stick (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-drumstick.wav

She could imagine the taste of the tender drumstick seeds on her tongue.

2011, Arupa Patangia Kalita, translated by Deepika Phukan, The Story of Felanee (fiction), translation of original in Assamese:

Moringa oleifera
Moringa oleifera#Translingual

(South Asia, Myanmar) The moringa or drumstick tree, Moringa oleifera, especially its slender, cylindrical pods.


dak

daks (plural)
dâk (alternative obsolete)
dawk (alternative obsolete)

Borrowed from Hindustani डाक / ڈاک (ḍāk).

He prided himself on looking neat even when he was riding dâks.

1886 November 23, Rudyard Kipling, “The Arrest of Lieutenant Golightly”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.; London: W. Thacker & Co., published 1888, →OCLC, pages 117–118:

(South Asia) A post system by means of transport relays of horses stationed at intervals along a route or network, carrying mail and passengers.

Gaining the dak, they were joined on the veranda by four tight-lipped men.

1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XV, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 161:

“What are you going to do?” said the woman, between her sobs. “Do! Nothing. What should I do? Kill Kurrell or send you Home, or apply for leave to get a divorce? It's two days' dâk into Narkarra.”

1889, Rudyard Kipling, “A Wayside Comedy”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 65:

(South Asia, obsolete) A journey using the dak system.


goonda

‘I cannot imagine the minds of goondas.’

2020, Avni Doshi, Burnt Sugar, Hamish Hamilton, page 31:


gora

en-adj

gora (comparative more gora, superlative most gora)

more gora (comparative)
most gora (superlative)
gaura (alternative)
ghora (alternative)

From Hindustani گورا (gorā) / गोरा (gorā). In British Pakistani speech, influenced by Punjabi گورا (gorā).

Every day after that, my parents showed off their daughter's Urdu-speaking gora ‘friend’ to anyone who walked through the door.

2023, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, The Centre, Picador, page 41:

(South Asia) Pertaining to a fair-skinned or European person.


punkah

Borrowed from Hindi पंखा (paṅkhā, “fan”), from Sanskrit पक्षक (pakṣaka), from पक्ष (pakṣa, “wing”).

bor+

A punkah is, by some, used instead of a chattah, (or umbrella); but it is very inferior as a defence against either sun, wind, or rain.

1810, Thomas Williamson, East India Vade-Mecum..., page 313:

Outside the court the sun blazed—within was the wind of great punkahs that made you shiver …

1900, Joseph Conrad, chapter 4, in Lord Jim:

In the refreshment room a few would-be passengers were cooled by the punkah, worked by a string tied to the big toe of a sleepy Burmese boy.

1943 November and December, G. T. Porter, “The Lines Behind the Lines in Burma”, in Railway Magazine, page 325:

Perhaps it was a mistake to invite Mr Stanhope; the day was intolerably hot and humid; all he wanted to do was to lie on his bed with a punkah sighing over him, at least moving the unbreathable air.

(South Asia, Myanmar) A fan, particularly a large fan made of leaf or cloth and hung from the ceiling, (historical) formerly often operated by a servant.


namaz

From Ottoman Turkish نماز (namâz) (Turkish namaz) and Urdu نماز (namāz), and their source, Classical Persian نماز (namāz).

Dr Jaffry was prostrated on a prayer carpet, finishing his evening namaz.

1993, William Dalrymple, City of Djinns, Penguin, published 2004, page 228:

He swung at me but I ducked and said, ‘Time for the fifth namaaz of the day, Prince.’

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 157:

(Islam, South Asia) Synonym of salat (“Islamic prayer”).


tarka

Borrowed from Hindustani तड़का / تڑکا (taṛkā).

(South Asia, cooking) Heated oil or ghee in which spices and onion, etc. are well-stirred and browned.


dhobi

dhobis (plural)
dhobie (alternative)
dhoby (alternative)
dobie (alternative)

... "The first dhobi khana was under the Madras Presidency...”

2003, https://web.archive.org/web/20050508060337/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/07/07/stories/2003070700750100.htm The 'dhobi khana' at Fort Kochi was once throbbing with activity. […]

(South Asia) A laundryman or washerman, or laundrywoman or washerwoman.

ধোপা

a laundryman or washerman, or laundrywoman or washerwoman, in India and Pakistan


zamindar

zamindars (plural)
zemindar (alternative)
zumeendar (alternative)
Zumeendar (alternative)

Borrowed from Urdu زمیندار (zamīndār, “landlord”), from Persian زمیندار.

uder

Persian زمیندار

1861, Henry Mayhew et al., London Labour and the London Poor, London: C. Griffin, Volume 4, p. 120,
In Bengal there were […] many female zemindars, or village revenue administrators, who were, however, subject to the influence, but not to the authority, of the male members of their family.

An Oxford avatar of the old zamindar mentality―a landlord forcing his attentions on women who depended on him for their livelihood.

1997, Arundhati Roy, chapter 2, in The God of Small Things, New York: Random House, page 63:

Indian princes, zamindars and industrialists engaged him as their counsel and paid him whatever he asked for as fees.

2004, Khushwant Singh, Burial at Sea, Penguin, published 2014, page 6:

Thus it happened that the approach of the Ibis was witnessed by Raja Neel Rattan Halder, the zemindar of Raskhali, who was on board the palatial barge with his eight-year-old son and a sizeable retune of attendants.

2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin, published 2015, page 39:

The power of the zamindars, who were mainly Brahmin or Rajput, was challenged in a series of peasant movements between 1919 and 1921, when Charan Singh was in his late teens.

2017, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin, page 402:

(South Asia, historical) An Indian landowner who collected local taxes and paid them to the British government.


tawa

Deeti gave her daughter the job of sweeping the poppy petals into a heap while she busied herself in stoking the fire and heating a heavy iron tawa.

2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin, published 2015, page 6:


marga

en-noun

marga (countable and uncountable, plural margas)

Borrowed from Sanskrit मार्ग (mārga). Doublet of marg.

(South Asia) The canon of established forms of classical music, dance etc., as opposed to modern or regional developments.


mahout

PIE word
 *méǵh₂s
The noun is borrowed from Hindustani (Hindi महौत (mahaut)/Urdu مَہَوت (mahaut)), महाउत (mahāut), variants of महावत (mahāvat)/مَہاوَت (mahāvat), from Sanskrit महामात्र (mahāmātra, “elephant keeper; high official; king’s minister”), from महा (mahā, “great”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“big, great”)) + मात्र (mātra, “measure; quantity”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”)).
The verb is derived from the noun.

ref

From the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, United Kingdom.

der

The Serrievvan hath the overſight of the Camels, and the Mahout, that of the Elephants.

1662, Adam Olearius, “The Voyages & Travels of J. Albert de Mandelslo [i.e., Johan Albrecht de Mandelslo] […] into the East-Indies. […]”, in John Davies, transl., The Voyages & Travels of the Ambassadors from the Duke of Holstein, to the Great Duke of Muscovy, and the King of Persia. […], London: […] Thomas Dring, and John Starkey, […], →OCLC, book I, page 81:

The very best of all the elephants belonged to the very worst of all the drivers or mahouts; and the superior beast's name was Moti Guj. He was the absolute property of his mahout, which would never have been the case under native rule, for Moti Guj was a creature to be desired by kings; and his name, being translated, meant the Pearl Elephant.

1891 August, Rudyard Kipling, “Moti Guj—Mutineer”, in Life’s Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own People, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., […], published October 1891, →OCLC, page 307:

[I]n a cabinet were about a hundred little elephants made of ivory. They were of different sizes, and some had their mahouts or palanquins on their backs.

1910 November – 1911 August, Frances Hodgson Burnett, “‘There Was Some One Crying—There Was!’”, in The Secret Garden, New York, N.Y.: Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company, published 1911, →OCLC, page 71:

Around mid-day elephants were taken into the forest by their mahouts to forage on foods of their choice, and then carried back a supply of food gathered by mahout and elephant. During the relaxed mid-day period, it was common to see mahouts sleeping on their elephants' backs, under an umbrella for shade.

2005, Lynette A. Hart, “The Elephant–Mahout Relationship in India and Nepal: A Tourist Attraction”, in John Knight, editor, Animals in Person: Cultural Perspectives on Human–Animal Intimacies, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2020, →ISBN, page 172:

(South Asia) An elephant trainer, keeper, and driver.


dahi

Borrowed from Hindustani دہی / दही (dahī), from Sanskrit दधि (dádhi). Doublet of tyre.

(South Asia) A yogurt or fermented milk product.


zenana

From Hindi ज़नाना (zanānā), Urdu زنانه (zanānah), from Classical Persian زنانه (zanāna, “womanly”), from زن (zan, “woman”). Related to Old English cwene (“woman”). More at quean.

uder

Depend upon it, Solomon would never have built altars to Ashtaroth and all those ladies with queer names, if there had not been trouble of some kind in his zenana, and nowhere else.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Bisara of Pooree”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society, published 2005, page 173:

Yet inside the walls of the havelis and the lattice screens of the zenana, life goes on as it always did.

1993, William Dalrymple, City of Djinns, Penguin, published 2004, page 59:

Out of the blue, the chief eunuch of the zenana appears.

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 84:

‘You have more than enough to occupy you, I'm sure, with all your palaces and zenanas and budgerows.’

2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin, published 2015, page 110:

(South Asia) Synonym of harem, an area of a house or palace for high-caste women or for the wives of a wealthy man; the women thus kept; the system of segregating women in this way.

harem

(South Asia) Synonym of sissy, an effeminate man.

In parts of North India, effeminate males who are assumed to play the passive role in homosexual relationships are referred to as zenana, literally meaning woman.

1999, Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India:

(South Asia) Synonym of bottom, the passive partner in male homosexual sex.

bottom

For some years past the zanána'''s have celebrated the Holi as a carnival. They assume female names, by which they are called in their own circle. Most of them are beardless youth; those who have beards shave them. Náz nakhra (flirtation) becomes their second nature.

1911, A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province:

(South Asia) Synonym of trans woman, a person assigned male at birth who identifies as female.


almirah

almirahs (plural)
almira (alternative)
almyrah (alternative)

Borrowed from Hindustani الماری / अलमारी (almārī) from Portuguese armário, from Latin armarium. Doublet of ambry, armarium, and armoire.

The three women ran past an almirah and entered a godown.

2011, Arupa Patangia Kalita, translated by Deepika Phukan, The Story of Felanee:

(South Asia) Cupboard, cabinet or chest of drawers.


dicky

dickies (plural)
dickey (alternative)
dickie (alternative)

→ Urdu: ڈِکّی (ḍikkī), ڈِگّی (ḍiggī)

→ Pashto: ډِګّۍ (ḍiggay)

From dick + -y (diminutive suffix).
* In cover/apron senses: perhaps from English dialect dick (“leather apron”) + -y; perhaps from Dutch dek (“a cover”).

Can you open the dicky for me?

Back and forth, back and forth, go our mothers on their secret missions, carrying their sinister freight in the dicky of our Morris Minor.

1988, Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice-Candy Man, Daunt Books (2016), page 184:

(South Asia) The luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon style car.


bahu

Borrowed from Hindi बहू (bahū) / Urdu بَہُو (bahū), from Sanskrit वधू (vadhū́).

(South Asia) A daughter-in-law or sister-in-law, especially one who lives with her husband's family when married.


dupatta

dupattas (plural)
dupatte (plural)
dopatta (alternative)
dooputty (alternative)
dupata (alternative)

Borrowed from Hindi दुपट्टा (dupaṭṭā) / Urdu دوپَٹَّہ (dopaṭṭa).

Her dupatta slipped from her shoulders, as he encircled her waist with one hand.

Red bangles are stacked all the way to her elbows and her glittering scarlet dupatta is pinned to the high mound of her hair.

2023, Radhika Iyengar, Fire on the Ganges, Fourth Estate, page 284:

(South Asia) A double layer of cloth worn by women as a scarf, veil etc.


panchayat

/pənˈt͡ʃɑjət̪/

Borrowed from Hindi पंचायत (pañcāyat, “panchayat (originally a council of five)”).

bor

He called a panchayat of the village and asked them if they objected to having a mill go up next to their village.

2004, Khushwant Singh, Burial at Sea, Penguin, published 2014, page 58:

“You're in the panchayat,” she said. “So couldn't you make that official?”

2005, Salman Rushdie, Shalimar the Clown, Vintage, published 2006, page 233:

(South Asia, chiefly India) A village council or local government.


brinjal

brinjals (plural)
bringal (alternative)
bringall (alternative)
bringaul (alternative)
brinjall (alternative)
brinjaul (alternative)

/ˈbɹɪnd͡ʒəl/

/ˈbɹɪnd͡ʒɒl/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-brinjal.wav

Etymology tree
Proto-Dravidian *waẓVtVder.
Sanskrit वातिङ्गण (vātiṅgaṇa)bor.
Classical Persian بَاذِنْگَان (bāzingān)bor.
Arabic بَاذِنْجَان (bāḏinjān)bor.
Old Galician-Portuguese berengenha
Portuguese beringelabor.
English brinjal
Borrowed from Portuguese beringela, from Old Galician-Portuguese berengenha, borrowed from Arabic بَاذِنْجَان (bāḏinjān), borrowed from Classical Persian بَاذِنْگَان (bāzingān), borrowed from Sanskrit वातिङ्गण (vātiṅgaṇa), from Proto-Dravidian *waẓVtV. Doublet of aubergine.

etymon

Hindustan produces abundance of wheat, and throughout India the natives are plentifully supplied with vegetables and fruit; the brinjal, tomato, yam, carrot, radish, onion, garlic, spinach cabbage, nowkohl, cucumbers, and other gourds, may be mentioned among the former

1858, George Trevor, India, an historical sketch, page 14:

(South Asia, Malaysia, South Africa, Singapore) An aubergine or eggplant.


lehnga

lehngas (plural)
lehanga (alternative)
lehenga (alternative)

For most of the ceremony, Naima was sitting on the stage wearing an elaborate maroon lehnga that was so heavy it had taken the both of us to lift the box when it first arrived from the designer.

2023, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, The Centre, Picador, page 294:

(South Asia) A long formal or ceremonial skirt worn by Indian women, usually with a choli (short blouse).


cousin sister

cousin sisters (plural)
cousin-sister (alternative)

Late in 1997 the entire family returned to India to arrange the marriages of Nimrat's brothers and cousin-sister.

2006, Nicola Mooney, “Aspiration, reunification and gender transformation in Jat Sikh marriages from India to Canada”, in Global Networks, volume 6, number 4, page 394:

Welfare Ministry Secretary Upali Dahanayake, his elderly father, daughter, and a cousin sister died on the spot in a tragic accident in Mahiyangana yesterday.

2007 July 2, Kurulu Kariyakarawana, Yohan Perera, “Ministry secretary, three others killed in road accident”, in Daily Mirror e-edition, Sri Lanka, page 1:


cousin brother

cousin brothers (plural)
cousin-brother (alternative)

A semantic loan from respective Indo-Aryan languages' terms for cousin brothers. Compare Punjabi ਚਾਚੇਰਾ ਭਰਾ / چاچیرا بھرا (cācerā bhrā) and Hindi चाचेरा भाई / Urdu چاچیرا بھائی (cācerā bhāī).

semantic loan

Punjabi ਚਾਚੇਰਾ ਭਰਾ

Hindi चाचेरा भाई

چاچیرا بھائی

Urdu چاچیرا بھائی (cācerā bhāī)

I got one cousin-brother. He dam rich. I speak him for the ten thousand rupees.

1853, J. H. Stocqueler, The Old Field Officer or The Military and Sporting Adventures of Major Worthington, volume 2, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 3:

In Punjabi joint families, first cousins are considered siblings (cousin-sisters and cousin-brothers).

2006, Nicola Mooney, “Aspiration, reunification and gender transformation in Jat Sikh marriages from India to Canada”, in Global Networks, volume 6, number 4, page 392:

"I was just recovering from the death of my close cousin brother," says Patil.

2007, Deepa Venkataraman, "Brave Hearts," expressindia.com, Mumbai, 2 July


punkahwallah

punkahwallahs (plural)
punkah wallah (alternative)

/ˈpʌŋkəˌwɒlə/

/ˈpʌŋkəˌwɑlə/

Borrowed from Hindi पंखावाला (paṅkhāvālā); also analyzable within English as punkah + wallah.

(South Asia) A servant who operates a punkah (type of fan).


Gandhi

en-proper noun

Gandhi (countable and uncountable, plural Gandhis)

From Gujarati ગાંધી (gā̃dhī, “grocer, merchant”), from Sanskrit गन्ध (gandha, “perfume”). Originally, a trader in perfume.

bor

(countable, South Asia) A surname from India used by Hindu, Jain, Parsi and Sikh people throughout India.


pandal

pandals (plural)
pandall (alternative)
pandaul (alternative)
pendaul (alternative)

Bengali: প্যান্ডেল (pênḍel)

Borrowed from Tamil பந்தல் (pantal)/பந்தர் (pantar).

(Myanmar, South Asia) a large temporary structure erected during various Hindu and Buddhist religious festivals


chokey

Borrowed from Hindi चौकी (caukī) and Urdu چَوکی (caukī, “post, police station, etc.”).

(South Asia, historical) A station, as for police, customs agents, palanquin-bearers, etc.


ragging

en-noun

ragging (countable and uncountable, plural raggings)

“ragging” means any disorderly conduct, whether by words spoken or written or by an act which has the effect of teasing, treating or handling with rudeness any other student indulging in rowdy or indisciplined activities which causes or is likely to cause annoyance, hardship or psychological harm or to raise fear or apprehension thereof in a fresher or a Junior student or asking the student to do any act or perform something which such student will not do in the ordinary course and which has the effect of causing or generating a sense of shame or embarrassment or adversely affect the physique or psyche of a fresher or a Junior student;

2008, The Goa Prohibition of Ragging Act, 2008 (Act 9 of 2009) section 2(e)

(South Asia) An initiation in educational institutions (e.g. universities) usually involving harassment by seniors.


Eve-teasing

Eve-teasing (usually uncountable, plural Eve-teasings)

Named after the biblical Eve, the first woman. Likely influenced by Hindi छेड़ख़ानी (cheṛxānī), छेड़-छाड़ (cheṛ-chāṛ).

der

Hindi छेड़ख़ानी (cheṛxānī)

(South Asia) sexual harassment of women by men


zindabad

Borrowed from Hindustani ज़िंदाबाद (zindābād) / زندہ باد (Zinda Bād, “long live”), from Classical Persian زنده باد (zinda bād).

Libgen Zindabad

2021 September 30, Ok_Option_474, Reddit:

Jio zindabad

2022 May 18, Successful_Pizza2802, Reddit:

Since I will never get an uber, the ride is just never available whichever city I am in, bhai auto zindabad !

2023 August 1, Swastika Mukherjee (@swastika24), Twitter:

Public transport zindabad! / 3:35 - am outside Vanaz stn / 3:42 - metro leaves / 4:20 - metro reaches Ramwadi / 4:26 shuttle leaves / 4:38 - reached airport

2024 March 11, Pushkaraj Apte (@pushkarajapte), Twitter:

Google Translate zindabad !

2024 November 4, Dr Aniruddha Malpani, MD (@malpani), Twitter:

Bangladesh zindabad!

2025 March 3, Ahsan Mahim(@AhsanMahim4), Twitter:

(South Asia, slang) Used to express intense approval or suggest use of something


vakil

Borrowed from Urdu وکیل (okel) / Hindi वकील (vakīl), from Arabic وَكِيل (wakīl, “agent”).

These papers deal with all sorts of things—from the payment of Rs.200 to a ‘secret service’ native, up to rebukes administered to Vakils and Motamids of Native States

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “Consequences”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio, published 2005, page 69:

A berth was reserved for me by my friends in the same cabin as that of Sergt. Tryambakrai Mazmudar, the Junagadh vakil. They also commended me to him. He was an experienced man of mature age and knew the world. I was yet a stripling of eighteen without any experience of the world. Sergt. Mazmudar told my friends not to worry about me.

1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xii

(South Asia) Alternative form of vakeel.


khitmatgar

khitmatgars (plural)
khedmutgar (alternative)
khedmatgar (alternative)
khidmatgar (alternative)
khidmutgar (alternative)
khitmutgar (alternative)
kitmagar (alternative)
khitmagar (alternative)
kismutgar (alternative)
kistmutgar (alternative)
kitmuddar (alternative)
kitmutgar (alternative)
kitmutgaur (alternative)

/ˈkɪtmətɡɑː/

Borrowed from Hindustani خدمتگار (xidmatgār) / ख़िदमतगार, from Classical Persian خدمتگار (xidmatgār).

I found her closely locked in the arms of a handsome lad, one of my kitmuddars, with the infant by her side, all three being in a deep sleep, from which I awakened the two elders.

1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 384

He did not know then that his khitmatgar had stopped by the roadside to get drunk, and would come on the next day saying that he had sprained his ankle.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Arrest of Lieutenant Golightly”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio, published 2005, page 94:

‘The Ambassador to Bangalore appeared before me dressed in the robes of a khitmagar or majordomo.’

1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 1108:

(British India, South Asia) A male servant, with responsibility for waiting at table.


charpoy

charpoys (plural)
charpai (alternative)
charpaya (alternative)

From Hindustani چار پائی (cār pāī) / चारपाई (cārpāī), from चार (cār, “four”) + पाई (pāī, “feet”), thus literally “quadruped” or “tetrapod”.

Here is a charpoy on which two can sit, and it is possible that there may, from time to time, be food in that platter.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “To be Filed for Reference”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society, published 2004, page 213:

Flory crossed the brick-like earth of the yard between the hospital sheds. All down the wide verandas, on sheetless charpoys, rows of grey-faced men lay silent and moveless.

1934, George Orwell, chapter 13, in Burmese Days:

There, every morning, tens of thousands of young men sit in the tea shops, reading the newspaper, or lie on a charpoy humming a tune, or sit in their rooms talking to a photo of a film actress.

2008, Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger, Atlantic, published 2009, page 54:

(South Asia) A traditional bedstead used in South Asia, consisting of a wooden frame bordering a set of knotted ropes.


Pathan

Borrowed from Hindustani پٹھان / पठान (paṭhān). Doublet of Pashtun.

After long deliberation about the choice of nations, I became a “Pathán.”

1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, Dover, published 1964, pages 44–5:

(British India, South Asia) Synonym of Pashtun; a member of the Pashto-speaking people of today’s north-west Pakistan and south-east Afghanistan.


havildar

havildars (plural)
avaldar (alternative)
havaldar (alternative)
havildah (alternative)

Borrowed from Hindustani حوالدار (ḥavāldār) / हविलदार (havildār), from Persian حوالدار (havâldâr), from Arabic حَوَالَة (ḥawāla, “charge”) + Persian دار (dâr, “holder”).

‘There was a great fight,’ said the Havildar, ‘and of us no man escaped unhurt.’

1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘At Howli Thana’, Black and White, Folio Society, published 2005, page 388:

On being congratulated by the Russian, the Gurkha havildar, or sergeant, whispered anxiously to Younghusband that he should inform the towering Gromchevsky that they were unusually small and that most Gurkhas were even taller than he was.

1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 406:

noncommissioned officer
noncommissioned officer

(South Asia) An noncommissioned officer rank in parts of India, later a specific military rank of the British Indian Army and of the modern armies of India and Pakistan, equivalent to sergeant.


befool

en-verb

befool (third-person singular simple present befools, present participle befooling, simple past and past participle befooled)

befools (present singular third-person)
befooling (participle present)
befooled (participle past)
befooled (past)

From Middle English bifolen, equivalent to be- + fool.

Nothing doth so befoole a man as extreme passion; this doth both make them fooles, which otherwise are not; and show them to be fooles that are so […]

1605, Joseph Hall, Meditations and Vowes, Diuine and Morall, London: John Porter, section 63:

[T]hey ſettle upon their ovvn dregs, and grovv muddy and muſty vvith long eaſe, and their proſperity befooleth them to their ovvn deſtruction.

1637 July (date delivered), Robert Sanderson, “[Ad Aulam.] Sermon VI. Otelands, July 1637.”, in XXXIV Sermons. […], 5th edition, London: […] [A. Clark] for A. Seil, and are to be sold by G. Sawbridge, […], published 1671, →OCLC, paragraph 10, page 81:

Flattery is their nature—to coax, flatter and sweetly befool some one is every woman’s business.

1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], chapter XL, in The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC:

"How can a woman live two thousand years? Why dost thou befool me, oh Queen?"

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

But above all beware never to look the Fairy of the Dawn in the face, for she has eyes that will bewitch you, and glances that will befool you.

1901, Andrew Lang, “The Fairy of the Dawn”, in The Violet Fairy Book:

They alleged Dr Sidhu had no specialization in reducing weight and was only befooling innocent people.

2009 July 13, “BJP workers stage protest after leader dies in hospital”, in Times of India, retrieved 2013-05-29:

(transitive, archaic) To make a fool out of (someone); to fool, trick, or deceive (someone).


sisterfucker

Compound of sister + fucker. Calque of Hindustani بہن چود / बहनचोद (bahancod).

That reminded Gustad. ‘Have you noticed how much it stinks, and all the mosquitoes?’ ‘Naturally, with the amount of piss that flows there. Every sisterfucker with a full bladder stops by the wall and pulls out his lorri.’

1992, Rohinton Mistry, Such a long journey:

‘That’s what I said, sisterfucker!’ Chandu played the five of clubs.

1998, Amal Chatterjee, Across the Lakes, page 46:

For their benefit Vishalam uttered a Hindi obscenity—
Bhenchooth!
Sisterfucker!
And the sisterfucker fled. Vishalam collapsed on the threshold.

2007, Vivek Iyer, Whiskey's Secret, page 93:

(South Asia, vulgar, offensive) An extremely undesirable person.


hakim

hakims (plural)
hackeem (alternative archaic)
hakeem (alternative archaic)
huckeem (alternative archaic)
hukeem (alternative archaic)

From Hindustani حکیم / हकीम (hakīm), from Classical Persian حکیم (hakīm), from Arabic حَكِيم (ḥakīm, “wise, learned”).

The second speaks of naturall Philosophy or Physick, and is studyed by the Hackeams or Physitians […]

1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, section I:

I went up to them, and they said, ‘We hear that you are a hakim, who has done great things.’

1903, GA Henty, With Kitchener in the Soudan:

‘It was his duty to report suspicious characters, and conceivably it was some disreputable hakim who had prowled up from the bazaar.’

1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 28:

The Englishman was to remain there for three weeks, this time posing as a hakeem, secretly observing and noting down everything of significance.

1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 116:

(South Asia) A doctor, usually practicing traditional medicine.


rakhi

Borrowed from Hindi राखी (rākhī, “a rakhi”), from Sanskrit रक्षिका (rakṣikā, “a rakhi”), from रक्षा (rakṣā, “care, guarding, preservation, protection; a rakhi”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂lek- (“to protect”).

der

When her Amazonian sister the Rahtore queen was slain, the mother of the infant prince took a surer method to shield him in demanding the fulfilment of the pledge given by Hemayoon when she sent the Rakhi to that monarch. ‘The festival of the bracelet (Rakhi)’ is in spring, and whatever its origin, it is one of the few when an intercourse of gallantry of the most delicate nature is established between the fair sex and the cavaliers of Rajast’han. […] The Rajpoot dame bestows with the Rakhi the title of adopted brother; and while its acceptance secures to her all the protection of a ‘cavaliere servente,’ scandal itself never suggests any other tie to his devotion.

1829, James Tod, chapter IX, in Annals and Antiquities of Rajast’han, or the Central and Western Rajpoot States of India, volume I, London: Published by Smith, Elder, and Co., […]; and Calkin and Budd, […], →OCLC, page 312:

Although the festival of the Rakhi had not arrived, the mother of the young prince sent Captain Tod, by the hands of the family priest, the bracelet of adoption as her brother, which made his young ward thenceforth his nephew. He had received the rakhi from, and become the "bracelet-bound brother" of, two other queens, the Ranís of Oodeypore and Kotah, besides the maiden sister of the Rana, and many ladies of chiefs of rank: these, he observes, were all the treasures he brought away.

1839, James Tod, “Memoir of the Author”, in Travels in Western India, […], London: W[illia]m H[oughton] Allen and Co., […], →OCLC, page xli:

On the 16th of October, 1905, immense numbers of people in the two divisions of the partitioned Province abstain from lighting their kitchen fire, go about bare-footed, perform ceremonial baths in rivers or sacred tanks, tie in one another's wrist the sacred rakhi, a piece of silk or cotton thread, as a symbol of fraternal and national unity.

1910, Bipin Chandra Pal, “National Education”, in The Spirit of Indian Nationalism, London: Published by the Hind Nationalist Agency, […], →OCLC, page 73:

Veena went in the morning to Prem Nivas to tie a rakhi around Pran's wrist. She chose a simple rakhi, a small silver flower of tinsel on a red thread. She fed him a laddu and blessed him, and received in exchange his promise of protection, five rupees, and a hug.

1993, Vikram Seth, “The Prime Minister Fights, and Keeps His Head. Sad Sons Assuage the Spirits of Their Dead.”, in A Suitable Boy, New Delhi: Viking Books, →ISBN; republished New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2005, →ISBN, section 14.10, page 980:

The tradition of Rakhi (tieing of a cord) to brother at an annual festival and a cotton thread on the second day of Holi and Diwali as a token of her deep feelings for her brother have cemented the bond between brother and sister very much during the last many centuries of Indian tradition. The brother accepts the Rakhi and Dora with a genuine feeling of filial love and affection for his sister and as a token of great affection and bond of fraternity for him.

1993, Raghuvir Sinha, “Role Playing and Role Taking in the Universal Hindu Family”, in Dynamics of Change in the Modern Hindu Family, New Delhi: Ashok Kumar Mittal, Concept Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 112:

It was the sister's responsibility to prepare a thaali that held the items for the typing of the rakhi. On the thaalis were sandalwood paste or roli (red paste) for the tilak, kalwa (which in this case were the rakhis), sweets, a coconut and grains of rice. The ceremony was quite simple, as first the sister tied a rakhi on her brother, fed him a sweet, and then gave him a coconut. The brother in turn gave his sister a gift of money. The sisters tied a rakhi on all of their brothers as well as their cousin brothers.

2008, Colleen M. Yim, “Religious Knowledge Transmission through Festivals and Votive Rites”, in Veiled Gurus: A Hindu Mother’s Experiential Involvement in Religious Knowledge Transmission, Lanham, Md., Plymouth, Devon: University Press of America, →ISBN, page 81:

The whole day long you kept showing up behind the door, hurling taunt after taunt at me for not tying a rakhi on you, until Mother finally relented. She sent for a few rakhis from the bazaar and gave them to me. The next time you sneaked behind the door, I grabbed your hand and tied the whole lot on your wrist. Seeing not one, not even two, but three separate rakhis on your wrist, you became overjoyed and sprinted off, reappearing only in the evening, […]

2011, Altaf Fatima, “Do You Suppose It’s the East Wind?”, in Reza Aslan, editor, Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East (Words without Borders Anthology), New York, N.Y., London: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 536:

(chiefly South Asia, Indian subcontinent) An ornamental cotton wristband tied by a girl or woman on to the wrist of her brother, or of one who takes on the responsibilities of a brother, particularly during the Raksha Bandhan festival.


kajal

She had thick black kajal on her eyes, unbecoming lipstick, and a wristful of bangles.

2011, Arupa Patangia Kalita, translated by Deepika Phukan, The Story of Felanee:


subadar

subadars (plural)
soubadar (alternative)
soubedar (alternative)
subahdar (alternative)
subedar (alternative)
subidar (alternative)

From Hindi सूबेदार (sūbedār) / Urdu صوبدار (sūbadār), and its source, (Indian) Persian صوبهدار (sūbadār), corresponding to صوبه (sūba, “province”) + ـدار (-dār, “in ownership of, in charge of”).

suffix

Hindostan was then parcelled out into twelve grand divisions, called soobahs, to each of which a viceroy was assigned, by the title of Soobahdar, corruptly written Soobah by European writers; for, soobah signifies province: many of these soobahs were in extent equal to large European kingdoms.

1806, [Thomas Maurice], Indian Antiquities: Or, Dissertations Relative to the Antient Geographical Divisions, […] of Hindostan: […] , volume I. Containing the Dissertation on the Antient Geographical Divisions of Hindostan, London: Printed […] by C. & W. Galabin […] and sold by John White […] , pages 231–232:

(South Asia, historical) The governor or commander in charge of a subah; a viceroy.


suji

Borrowed from Hindi सूजी / Urdu سوجی (sūjī).

soojee (alternative)
sooji (alternative)
soojy (alternative)
soujee (alternative)
sujee (alternative)

(South Asia) Wheat that is granulated but not pulverized; a kind of semolina.


haramzada

haramzadas (plural)
haramzadeh (alternative)

Borrowed from Hindustani حرام زادہ / हरामज़ादा (harāmzādā), from Classical Persian حرامزاده (harām-zāda).

He had told her, too, how, sick and shaken with the fever their negligence had bred, crippled by the loss of his pet clerk, and savagely angry at the desolation in his charge, he had once damned the collective eyes of his "intelligent local board" for a set of haramzadas.

1909, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere. Part II.”, in Under the Deodars (The Works of Rudyard Kipling), Edinburgh de Luxe edition, Boston, Mass., London: The Edinburgh Society, →OCLC, page 31:


kutcha

en-adj

kutcha (comparative more kutcha, superlative most kutcha)

more kutcha (comparative)
most kutcha (superlative)
cutcha (alternative)
kacha (alternative)
kachcha (alternative)
kuchcha (alternative)

From Hindi कच्चा (kaccā, “raw, unripe”).

(South Asia) Imperfect, makeshift; ramshackle, second-rate.

The manager publicly announced that the kutcha house loan was for those who lived in thatched huts and the linkage loan for those who lived in tiled houses!

2016 July 7, K. Kalpana, Women, Microfinance and the State in Neo-liberal India, Routledge, →ISBN, page 129:

(South Asia, of a building) Made with natural materials, especially unfired mud and thatch.


kutcha

cutcha (alternative)
kacha (alternative)
kachcha (alternative)
kuchcha (alternative)

The only reasonable objection that could be made was its being cutcha—that is, built with mud instead of mortar.

1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 215

Does the Station go on still? That was ages and ages ago. It must be crumbling to pieces. All except the Amirtollah kutcha road. I don't believe that could crumble till the Day of Judgment.

1909, Rudyard Kipling, “The Hill of Illusion”, in Under the Deodars (The Works of Rudyard Kipling), Edinburgh de Luxe edition, Boston, Mass., London: The Edinburgh Society, →OCLC, page 84:

(South Asia) Dried brick or mud, used as a material.


keema

en-noun

keema (countable and uncountable, plural keemas)

keemas (plural)
kheema (alternative)
qeema (alternative)

From Urdu قیمہ, from Persian قیمه (qime), from Turkic, perhaps Ottoman Turkish قیمه (kıyma), whence Turkish kıyma. Doublet of gheimeh, an Iranian meat stew.

I picked up a samosa and took a bite. It was to die for. Crispy and warm, with succulent qeema and just the right amount of matar and aloo.

2023, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, The Centre, Picador, page 84:

(South Asia) Finely chopped mince as used in South Asia cookery, typically lamb with peas or potatoes and spices, sometimes used as a filling in samosas or naan.


hill station

hill stations (plural)
hill-station (alternative)

The message flashed to the Hill stations. — “Cholera — Leave stopped — Officers recalled.”

1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 144:

In 1854, General Barter, C.B., was a subaltern in the 75th Regiment, and was doing duty at the hill station of Murree in the Punjaub.

1897, Andrew Lang, chapter 4, in The Book of Dreams and Ghosts:

At 6.25 a.m. today Mr Nehru, who had gone to sleep last night "fresh and fit" after his short holiday at a hill station, had a stroke.

1964 May 28, Victor Anant, “Indians' anxious look at the era after Nehru”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 2009-06-10:

For builder Rakesh Prajapati, the ideal weekend is trekking up the wild path to reach hill station Matheran.

2006 October 15, Vijay Singh, “From Navi Mumbai, chilling is a drive away”, in Times of India, retrieved 2009-06-10:

(chiefly British, South Asia, Myanmar) In South and Southeast Asia, a small community located at a relatively high elevation which serves as a retreat or vacation location during the hot summers; historically, a village or military post so used by colonial officials.


your good name

In modern South Asian English, likely calque of Bengali ভালো নাম (bhalō nam), Hindi शुभ नाम (śubh nām, literally “good name”), and similar collocations in other Indian languages.
Good has a sense similar to honourable, as in older English phrases such as “good sir” or “your good wife”.

clq

‘Society ought to be proud of such men as you, Mr. – what is your good name, sir?’ – ‘Phiggins, at your service.’

1838, Bentley's Miscellany: Proceedings of the Wide Awake Club, page 361:

'That must be your nick name. But what's your good name ?' 'I ain't get any bad name only one name Goofy.' She laughs. 'It's a funny name for a man.'

The man moved a little away and cleaned himself. "And your good name?" "You can call me Satyadas."

1998, Civacaṅkari, Knit India Through Literature: The East:

“What's your good name?” I asked him. “Marcos,” he replied.

2004, Michael Muhammad Knight, The taqwacores:

What is your good name, sahib?

2004, James O'Reilly, Larry Habegger, Travelers' Tales India: True Stories:

(respectful, South Asia, also archaic UK) Your name.


firangi

firangis (plural)
firangi (plural)
Feringee (alternative)
Feringhee (alternative)
ferenghi (alternative)
Feringi (alternative)
Feringy (alternative)
Firangi (alternative)
Firinghee (alternative)
firingi (alternative)

Borrowed from Hindustani फ़िरंगी (firaṅgī) / فرنگی (firangī), from Classical Persian فرنگی (farangī), from Old French franc. Doublet of franc.

Prem, who knew him slightly from Dehra Dun (where Dhillon had been his junior), remembers Dhillon cheerfully telling everyone that the firangi were glad to have Indians patrolling their wire. This Prem doubted.

1995, Peter Ward Fay, The Forgotten Army: India's Armed Struggle for Independence 1942-1945, page 109:

Then Kashibayi cleared her throat and told him, "Maharaj, our Babasaheb Sarkar was a very patriotic king who fought against the firangi fellows. He was betrayed by his own people who were shamelessly treacherous."

2001, Basavaraj Naikar, The Sun Behind the Cloud, page 239:

The neighbouring men had all come to see the firangi, the foreign woman, [...]

2004, Christina Lamb, The Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan, page 252:

(British India, South Asia) A foreigner, especially a British or a white person.


chummery

Dicky could not afford living in the chummery, modest as it was. He had to explain this before he moved to a single room next the office where he worked all day.

1887, Rudyard Kipling, “In the Pride of His Youth”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, published 1888:

His first six months in Burma he had spent in Rangoon, where he was supposed to be learning the office side of his business. He had lived in a "chummery" with four other youths who devoted their entire energies to debauchery.

1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 5, in Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC:

1994, Business World, Vol. 14, Ananda Bazar Patrika Ltd., p. 159, https://books.google.ca/books?id=K6daAAAAYAAJ&q=%22chummeries%22&dq=%22chummeries%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8uLzritHNAhXBMGMKHZStD4EQ6AEIHjAA
Chummeries are extremely conducive to the great yuppie pursuit of networking.

2007, Henry Jayasēna, The Play is the Thing, Sri Lanka: Vijitha Yapa Publications, p. 27, https://books.google.ca/books?id=tKkLAQAAMAAJ&q=%22chummeries%22&dq=%22chummeries%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8uLzritHNAhXBMGMKHZStD4EQ6AEIMzAF
Many of us being bachelors, lived in rented out dilapidated old houses which were called "chummeries". The men from Jaffna, whether married or not, also lived in their own chummeries—mostly around Wellawatte, Dehiwala and Ratmalana.

Where single men lived together in a household, known as a chummery, the head servant or khansamah took charge over the food preparation.

2011, Cecilia Leong-Salobir, chapter 1, in Food Culture in Colonial Asia: A Taste of Empire, Routledge, page 36:

At his arrival in Rangoon, Braund is greeted by five chums from his London office days. […] His accommodations are in a sixth floor chummery, or company bachelor housing, which he shares with five other assistants. This is a dump, and junior assistants with more time in Rangoon board in a somewhat more regal chummery known as "The Gin Palace."

2012, Michael B. Miller, Europe and the Maritime World: A Twentieth-Century History, Cambridge University Press, Part One, Chapter 3, p. 115:

(South Asia) The shared home of a group of men who are unmarried or working at a distance from their families.


batchmate

He and several of his medical school batchmates were helping, he explained.

2023, V. V. Ganeshananthan, Brotherless Night, Viking, page 78:

(chiefly South Asia, Philippines) A member of the same graduation school class as another.

(chiefly South Asia, Philippines) A member of a batch.


hartal

→ Malay: hartal

Indonesian: hartal

Borrowed, via Hindi हड़ताल (haṛtāl), from Gujarati હડતાળ (haḍtāḷ), હડતાલ (haḍtāl), literally “locking of shops”.

There were slight disturbances in Karachi and Bombay city, a hartal in Bombay city similar to the last one but probably helped by the news of Tilak's death, […]

1974, Judith M. Brown, Gandhi's Rise to Power: Indian Politics 1915-1922, page 305:

One of the special characteristics of Bangladesh politics is hartal politics, a legacy of tactics of political agitation, which was used, in pre-partition India […]

2004, Salahuddin Ahmed, Bangladesh: Past and Present, page 34:

The eight-month-long hadtal and the accompanying hijrat or exodus reflect the collective strength of the Mahajan and their capacity to mobilize and organize.

2005, Acyuta Yājñika, Suchitra Sheth, The Shaping of Modern Gujarat: Plurality, Hindutva, and Beyond:

(South Asia, Malaysia) the closure of shops and offices, typically as a strike.


rabi

Borrowed from Hindustani ربیع (rabī) / रबी (rabī),
from Persian ربیع (rabi'), from Arabic رَبِيع (rabīʕ, “spring”).

...I made out that he would be here before the rabi harvest is ripe; the corn is green enough yet, but I thought that after work I would come over here to meet him.

The monsoon had failed at the beginning but picked up very well later, so the rabi crop would be just fine and the wars they mentioned had taken place a year and a half ago.

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 120:


suited and booted

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-suited and booted.wav

From suited (“wearing a suit”, adjective) + and + booted (“wearing a boot or boots”, adjective), the words chosen for the rhyme.

You can get Suited and Booted at such figures as will astonish you at the Star Store.

1876 November 30, “Local notices [advertisements]”, in Ja[me]s M. Cavaness, editor, Southern Kansas Advance, volume 8, number 47 (number 411 overall), Chetopa, Kan.: Jas. M. Cavaness, page 3, column 3:

Heroines will be suited and booted in tweeds this winter. Anyway, that is Dorothy Mackaill's latest street costume; a tweed suit and shoes of the same material trimmed with a little leather.

[1928 December 19, “Screen Life in Hollywood: Tailored shoes”, in Mandan Daily Pioneer, volume XV, number 198, Mandan, N.D.: Pioneer Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 4, column 5:

Jauntily suited and booted, Kathy Sheron (15), of Whitson-road, Huntington Station, New York, arrives in London to claim her prize. Kathy has won the Dave Clark Five—the British Beat Group—in a national contest, along with the title, "Miss Natural Wonder."

1965 August 7, The Guardian Journal, number J43,507, G34,027, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire: T. Bailey Forman, →OCLC, page 3, column 3:

The ultimate in suede suited and booted for individualists [title]

1974 November, “The Ultimate in Suede Suited and Booted for Individualists [advertisement]”, in John H[arold] Johnson, editor, Ebony, volume XXX, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: Johnson Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6:

In this novella, the TM [Talkative Man] meets Dr Rann, who claims to be a United Nations specialist, and unable to find a place for the strange visitor—who, as they used to say, was suited and booted—takes him to his own house.

1999, S. Krishnan, “Talkative Man [Introduction]”, in R[asipuram] K[rishnaswami Iyer] Narayan[aswami], edited by S. Krishnan, A Town Called Malgudi: The Finest Fiction of R. K. Narayan […], New Delhi, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 2002, →ISBN, page 259:

A couple of suited and booted business types appeared by my side, tossing peanuts into their mouths and gawping at the screens as though they had never seen a television before. They couldn't be from the TV station or any of the production companies that made the shows, because they were far too formally dressed.

2002, Tony Parsons, chapter 13, in Man and Wife, special overseas edition, London: HarperCollins, published 2003, →ISBN, part 2 (Your Heart is a Small Miracle), page 132:

When Bobby and Elaine showed up at a candidate's night or event or at just another speaking engagement, the chairman was wearing a suit and tie and Elaine was suited and booted in a dress, heels, the whole nine yards.

2006, Flores Alexander Forbes, chapter 11, in Will You Die with Me?: My Life and the Black Panther Party, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster, published July 2007, →ISBN, page 81:

Initially, his [Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar's] photograph was popularized through posters and pamphlets published and distributed by the RPI [Republican Party of India] for disseminating information about forthcoming meetings. The image was that of a suited and booted, westernized gentleman holding a copy of the Constitution in one hand. This image appeared to the common Dalits as a symbol of awareness through education and the fight for a better future. It also helped deconstruct the stereotypical notion of Dalits as being oppressed, suppressed and illiterate.

2006, Badri Narayan, “Visuals, Cultural Performances and Myths”, in Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics (Cultural Subordination and the Dalit Challenge; 5), New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications, →ISBN, page 76:

When she finally slept, it was to dream relentlessly of Michael. One moment he would be standing behind his desk, suited and booted, the next they would be naked in bed together, his glare boring into her soul, […]

2020, M. S. Batham, chapter 6, in Love, Vengeance, and Lies, Garibaldi Highlands, Squamish, B.C.: eXtasy Books, →ISBN, page 64:

(originally South Asia) Dressed smartly, especially in business or formal wear.

puku yllään

dressed smartly, especially in business or formal wear


patwari

Borrowed from Hindi पाटवारी (pāṭvārī) or Bengali পাটোয়ারি (paṭōẇari, “rent collector”).

bor

(South Asia) An official who visits agricultural lands and maintains records of their ownership and tilling.


rezai

Borrowed from Hindustani رَضائی (raẓā'ī) / रज़ाई (razāī), from Classical Persian رضائی (raẓā'ī).

(British India, South Asia) A coverlet quilted with cotton.


kesar

Borrowed from Hindustani केसर / کیسر (kesar, “saffron”), from Sanskrit केसर (késara).

kesar milk

The newly emerging Muslim middle class would offer ‘kesar’ tea after marriages or other formal feasts, replacing the traditional tea leaves with kesar strands. […]Over the years Pampur’s apiculture, claimed by many to create the best medicinal honey in the region, that is, kesar honey, has also prospered.

2001, Arun Kaul, “Kesar: The cultural geography of Kashmir”, in The Human Landscape, page 228:


pykar

Borrowed from Bengali পাইকার (paikar), from Hindustani پیکار (pekār) / पैकार (paikār), from Classical Persian پای کار (pāy-kār).

There were also smaller dealers, known by the names of Pykars, resident throughout the country at large who made purchases and prepared the opium in their houses from 10 to 50 maunds, but the commodity thus received from the Pykars was never genuine.

1892, Sir George Watt, A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India:

In Dacca before Plassey only 9 dalals and 11 pykars were permitted in the cloth trade. Any other person calling himself a dalal or a pykar was liable to be punished by Nawab's Daroga of Mulmul Khas Kuthee.

1961, Narendra Krishna Sinha, The Economic History of Bengal:

The Council of Revenue wrote to the CCC in 1772 that the Company's pykars were procuring cocoons through debt-bondage and coercion and that 'the riots and chassars are reduced to a state of actual slavery."

1995, Studies in History, volume 11, page 197:

A broker dealing directly with a manufacturer of goods.


challan

Borrowed from Hindi चालान (cālān) / Urdu چَالَان (cālān).

Urdu چَالَان (cālān)

Mathur sighed that things had come to such a pass that no honest businessman could get even a challan form without first handing out a few rupees.

The stores department will issue a challan for each packing.

2010, Dr Ashok Sharma, Auditing, New Delhi, page 92:

In past two years, Mohali police issued a paltry 17 challans to school bus operators for violations. Offences included speeding, rash driving and overloading.

(South Asia) An official form or other kind of document, piece of paperwork, citation etc.


challan

en-verb

challan (third-person singular simple present challans, present participle challaning or challanning, simple past and past participle challaned or challanned)

challans (present singular third-person)
challaning (participle present)
challanning (participle present)
challaned (participle past)
challaned (past)
challanned (participle past)
challanned (past)

bor

Urdu چَالَان (cālān)

(South Asia) To issue an official infringement citation.


rupchanda

Borrowed from Bengali রূপচাঁদা (rupcãda).

Rupchanda were darker than the folia chanda among the two groups. Control group rupchanda had stronger rancid odour than the folia chanda of the same group.

1983, D. James, The production and storage of dried fish:

Among the varieties of fish caught are the marine rupchanda, or pomfret, and the freshwater hilsa, a relative of the shad.

There are plenty of fish dishes − koi, hilsa, rupchanda and ayer all get a mention − but the menu has its chaotic moments and plenty of crossing out.

2008, Charles Campion, London Restaurant Guide 2009, page 196:

(South Asia, cooking) A Chinese silver pomfret, Pampus chinensis.


dargah

dargahs (plural)
durgah (alternative)
durgaw (alternative)

/ˈdɜː(ɹ)ɡɑː/

/ˈdɑː(ɹ)ɡɑː/

From Hindustani درگاہ / दरगाह (dargāh), from Classical Persian درگاه (dargāh). See also English eidgah.

If not for the fakir's dargah the village might well have melted back into the mud, its inhabitants not being the kind of people to tarry long in one place […].

2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin, published 2015, page 61:

But beyond the dargah, and the medieval warren in which it sits, north India's present-day politics can be a good deal less accommodating of religious diversity.

2016, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin, published 2017, page 86:

(Islam, South Asia) A shrine associated with the grave of a Muslim saint or similar religious figure.


suited-booted

From suited (“wearing a suit”, adjective) + booted (“wearing a boot or boots”, adjective), the words chosen for the rhyme.

suited and booted
suited and booted#English

(South Asia) Synonym of suited and booted (“dressed smartly, especially in business or formal wear”).


munshi

munshis (plural)
moonshee (alternative)
moonshi (alternative)
munsee (alternative)
munshee (alternative)

East Cowes
Osborne House
Queen Victoria
Royal Collection
Rudolf Swoboda

Borrowed from Urdu منشی (munšī, “secretary; munshi”) or directly from its etymon Classical Persian منشی (munšī, “secretary; munshi”), from Arabic مُنْشِئ (munšiʔ, “teacher; writer”).

refn

From the Royal Collection, located in Osborne House, East Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, UK.

مُنْشِئ

clerk; secretary — see also clerk, secretary

Then Your Committee examined Goneſhamdaſs, who was formerly Moonſhee, or Perſian Tranſlator, to Colonel Graham; [...]

1773 June 18, “Fifth Report from the Committee Appointed to Enquire into the Nature, State, and Condition, of the East India Company, and of the British Affairs in the East Indies”, in Reports from Committees of the House of Commons, volume III, [London]: Printed by order of the House, →OCLC, page 546, column 1:

Whoever has memory to retain what he hears, and who ſpeaks ſo intelligibly that no doubt of his meaning ariſes in his audience, and who is a man of good actions, [...] ſuch perſon the magiſtrate ſhall conſtitute his Leekhuk or Moonſhi, and writer.

1777 September, “A Code of Gentoo Laws, or Ordinations of the Pundits, from a Persian Translation, Made from the Original, Written in the Shanscrit Language. 4to. London, 1776.—Printed at the Expence of the East India Company, and Not to be Purchased.”, in The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature (Series the Fifth), volume XLIV, London: Printed for A. Hamilton, […], →OCLC, page 182:

This, and the two other examples given in the ſame plate, are from manuſcripts written in the coarſe and haſty manner of the Indian Munſhees: the reader muſt not expect, therefore, in ſuch writings, to have his eye delighted with graceful flouriſhes, minute hair-ſtrokes, or elegant combinations.

1795, William Ouseley, “Explanation of the Miscellaneous Specimens”, in Persian Miscellanies: An Essay to Facilitate the Reading of Persian Manuscripts; […], London: Printed for Richard White, […], →OCLC, page 94:

The next day, as soon as a case was decided, he quietly sneaked out of the room, and, following the successful suitor, significantly held out his palm. "To my joy and surprise," says Paunchkourí, "he slipped a rupee into it, and whispered to me to give the múnshí (the Persian clerk) his share.["]

1849, quoting Paunchkourí Khan, “Art. III.—The Revelations of an Orderly, by Paunchkourí Khan. Being an Attempt to Expose the Abuses of Administration, by the Relation of Every-day Occurrences in the Mofussil Courts. Benares: Printed at the Recorder Press: 1848.”, in The Calcutta Review, volume XI, number XXII, Calcutta: Printed for the proprietor, by Sanders, Cones and Co., […], →OCLC, page 322:

The moonshees succeeded in that litigation, and the decree in their suit declared the lands to be part of the jote tenure, and limited the zemindar's claim to a title to assess them for rent.

1866 February 26, “Tarakant Bannerjee, versus Puddomoney Dossee and Others”, in D. Sutherland, editor, Judgments of the Privy Council on Appeals from India. From 1831 to 1867, Calcutta: Published by Messrs. Thacker, Spink & Co., published 1867, →OCLC, page 632:

My munshi, a Mohammedan, gave us one morning a long account of what he believed, and what religious observances he had to follow. [...] The munshi smiled, as is the way of munshis, whatever answer is given them, but he asked no more.

1877 December, “[Literary Notices.] Sleepy Sketches—or How We Live and How We Do Not Live—from Bombay. London: Sampson Low & Co. 1877. [book review]”, in The Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume XC, number DXL, London: Hurst & Blackett, […]; Dublin: W. Ridings, […]; Melbourne, Vic.: George Robertson, →OCLC, page 748, column 2:

The Raja, for example, escaped and, while in disguise, finds work as Bahram's munshi or secretary – but these strands never quite recover the verve of their first outing.

2011 June 11, Tessa Hadley, “River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh – review”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-09-17:

Several of us, at one time or another, engaged "moonshis" or teachers, and tried to learn Hindustani, in which language, with one exception I think, none of us became very proficient.

1875 April, [John Arthur Bayley], chapter IV, in Reminiscences of School and Army Life, 1839 to 1859, [London?]: [Privately printed; s.n.], →OCLC, pages 54–55:

[A] beautifully-bound Tamil Bible and Prayer Book were brought over from the body of Christians on the other side the line by Edward Muttiyathillay, the munshee who had rendered such efficient help in the translation of both these books.

1875 December 11, “The Prince of Wales and the Native Church of Tinnevelly”, in The Church Missionary Intelligencer and Record, a Monthly Journal of Missionary Information, volume I (New Series), London: Church Missionary House, […]; Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday, […]; Hatchard and Co., […]; and J. Nisbet and Co., […], published February 1876, →OCLC, page 66:

This meant that Paulette had learnt a good deal of Latin from her father, while also absorbing Indian languages from the learned munshis who had been enlisted to assist the curator with his collections.

2008 October 14, Amitav Ghosh, chapter 6, in Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy; 1), London: John Murray, →ISBN; 1st Picador edition, New York, N.Y.: Picador, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009, →ISBN, pages 127–128:

When [Queen] Victoria died Bertie took his revenge by expunging every personal trace of her life at Windsor, dismantling her rooms (which he then occupied), and burning her letters to her Indian servant, the ‘Munshi’, in the latter’s presence.

2012 August, Sarah Bradford, “Merry Monarch: Bertie: A Life of Edward VII: By Jane Ridley: Chatto & Windus 496pp £30 [book review]”, in Literary Review, number 401, London: The Literary Review & Quarto, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-05-22:

(South Asia) A language teacher, especially one teaching Hindustani or Persian.


palki

From Hindi पालकी (pālkī), from Sanskrit पल्यङ्क (palyaṅka, “bed, couch, litter”) of uncertain origin. Doublet of palanquin.

The pálkí is an oblong box with sliding doors at the side and a pole at each end; it is usually from six to seven feet long, and is carried by four bearers on their shoulders.

1877, D. B. Allen et al., “A Statistical Account of Bengal”, in Districts of Gayá and Sháhábád, volume 12, page 81:

At length the daughters of respectable people feared to walk along the roads or on the gháts. If one was seen alone, the devoted Hindustani Durwans followed, calling out "Ma Thakurani," and, preventing them from bathing, brought a palki. Many of those who were not accustomed to travel in a palki seized the opportunity of doing so free of expense.

1884, Miriam S. Knight, The Poison Tree:

The wedding party came to a halt at the foot of the tree and some of them lay down to eat and the Raja got out of his palki and lay down to sleep in the shade.

1909, Cecil Henry Bompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas:

At first the uncle declined, but when a palki was sent for them, he and his nephew entered it.

1914, C. A. Kincaid, Deccan Nursery Tales:

There is little doubt that the palki, which was carried by four coolies, is the oldest type of closed, or "bund", gari. They were used principally for zenana purposes, although they were still on hire in the Calcutta Streets as late as 1900... One of the disadvantages attaching to the old palki was that there were so many blinds and movable parts to become loose that the noise and rattle were difficult to prevent.

1931 June, Frank E. Bushby, "Old-Time Conveyances in Calcutta", Bengal Past & Present, Vol. XLI, Nos. 81–82, pp. 138–139

The music had accompanied her as she was carried, in a palki, from the riverbank to the threshold of her new home […]

2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin, published 2015, page 32:

(South Asia, now chiefly historical) Synonym of palanquin.