"chamcha" meaning in All languages combined

See chamcha on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: chamchas [plural]
Etymology: Borrowed from Hindi चम्चा (camcā, “sycophant, hanger-on, lackey”, literally “spoon”). Etymology templates: {{bor|en|hi|चम्चा|lit=spoon|t=sycophant, hanger-on, lackey}} Hindi चम्चा (camcā, “sycophant, hanger-on, lackey”, literally “spoon”) Head templates: {{en-noun}} chamcha (plural chamchas)
  1. (India, colloquial) A sycophant and hanger-on or lackey. Tags: India, colloquial Related terms: chamchagiri (english: meaning spooning or sycophancy)

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "hi",
        "3": "चम्चा",
        "lit": "spoon",
        "t": "sycophant, hanger-on, lackey"
      },
      "expansion": "Hindi चम्चा (camcā, “sycophant, hanger-on, lackey”, literally “spoon”)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Hindi चम्चा (camcā, “sycophant, hanger-on, lackey”, literally “spoon”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "chamchas",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "chamcha (plural chamchas)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Indian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Indian politics",
          "orig": "en:Indian politics",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1989. Stuart Auerbach. Washington Post. (Mar. 26) “Nehru and His Nation”\nM J Akbar has been called a chamcha to the Gandhi family, and some of that slavish devotion shows up in his uncritical acceptance of Nehru’s government-dominated economic program and the erosion of the country’s grass roots political structure as a result of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994. William Dalrymple City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi (Dec. 1) “Glossary” p. 340",
          "text": "Chamcha Sycophant (lit. ‘spoon’). 1997. Ghulam Nabi Azad. India Today (June 23) p. 13: I have my own standing in the party. I cannot be anybody’s chamcha (stooge)."
        },
        {
          "text": "1997. Sudhir Vaishnav. Times of India. (Aug. 24) “A very political exercise”\nSeveral hangers-on. They are available aplenty everywhere in the country and are often known in the local market as Chamcha."
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              104,
              112
            ],
            [
              150,
              158
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1998 January 17, “In Praise of Chamchagiri”, in P.S. Sharma Times of India:",
          "text": "No doubt, the United Kingdom also had their sycophants—toadys, bachhas, jholichuks and hukkabardars—but chamchas of the modern vintage they had none. Chamchas are a breed apart.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004. Krishnakumar. Midday (Mumbai, India) (Sept. 21)",
          "text": "Leaders’ chamchas get lucky”: All three have pulled strings in their respective parties to get Assembly poll tickets for their puppets and close confidants, better known in political parlance as chamchas."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A sycophant and hanger-on or lackey."
      ],
      "id": "en-chamcha-en-noun--4GLcL52",
      "links": [
        [
          "sycophant",
          "sycophant"
        ],
        [
          "hanger-on",
          "hanger-on"
        ],
        [
          "lackey",
          "lackey"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(India, colloquial) A sycophant and hanger-on or lackey."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "english": "meaning spooning or sycophancy",
          "word": "chamchagiri"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "India",
        "colloquial"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "chamcha"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "hi",
        "3": "चम्चा",
        "lit": "spoon",
        "t": "sycophant, hanger-on, lackey"
      },
      "expansion": "Hindi चम्चा (camcā, “sycophant, hanger-on, lackey”, literally “spoon”)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Hindi चम्चा (camcā, “sycophant, hanger-on, lackey”, literally “spoon”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "chamchas",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "chamcha (plural chamchas)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "english": "meaning spooning or sycophancy",
      "word": "chamchagiri"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms borrowed from Hindi",
        "English terms derived from Hindi",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Indian English",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Indian politics",
        "en:People"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1989. Stuart Auerbach. Washington Post. (Mar. 26) “Nehru and His Nation”\nM J Akbar has been called a chamcha to the Gandhi family, and some of that slavish devotion shows up in his uncritical acceptance of Nehru’s government-dominated economic program and the erosion of the country’s grass roots political structure as a result of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994. William Dalrymple City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi (Dec. 1) “Glossary” p. 340",
          "text": "Chamcha Sycophant (lit. ‘spoon’). 1997. Ghulam Nabi Azad. India Today (June 23) p. 13: I have my own standing in the party. I cannot be anybody’s chamcha (stooge)."
        },
        {
          "text": "1997. Sudhir Vaishnav. Times of India. (Aug. 24) “A very political exercise”\nSeveral hangers-on. They are available aplenty everywhere in the country and are often known in the local market as Chamcha."
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              104,
              112
            ],
            [
              150,
              158
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1998 January 17, “In Praise of Chamchagiri”, in P.S. Sharma Times of India:",
          "text": "No doubt, the United Kingdom also had their sycophants—toadys, bachhas, jholichuks and hukkabardars—but chamchas of the modern vintage they had none. Chamchas are a breed apart.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004. Krishnakumar. Midday (Mumbai, India) (Sept. 21)",
          "text": "Leaders’ chamchas get lucky”: All three have pulled strings in their respective parties to get Assembly poll tickets for their puppets and close confidants, better known in political parlance as chamchas."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A sycophant and hanger-on or lackey."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sycophant",
          "sycophant"
        ],
        [
          "hanger-on",
          "hanger-on"
        ],
        [
          "lackey",
          "lackey"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(India, colloquial) A sycophant and hanger-on or lackey."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "India",
        "colloquial"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "chamcha"
}

Download raw JSONL data for chamcha meaning in All languages combined (2.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-05-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-01 using wiktextract (887c61b and 3d4dee6). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.