Spiga

Hindi Words in English

A few days back I was reading paper and saw a news referring to some dress called jodhpurs, I was a little surprised, what is our Jodhpur doing in London Fashion Week? Then I learned that jodhpurs are breeches and they are so called because they were originated in Jodhpur. This gave me an idea to search for words that are Indian in origin and now a part of English. Some I knew like pundit, guru, loot, pucca etc. All these words are used with their original meaning intact.
Here are some other Hindi words in English:
Thug: A conman
Basmati: US took basmati rice from us through patent, and we have only left with the credit of the origin of this word.
Bazaar: Market
Jungle
Pajama
Yoga
Swastika
Bungalow
Another English words based on Hindi;
Lac from lakh
cot from khat
dungaree from dungari
calender from kalantar
candy from khand
cushy( comfortable) from khushi
safari from safar
If you have any others words to include, please let me know.

2 comments:

  Cine Masala

13 May 2008 at 12:32

Posted this link in www.surfurls.com

  Anonymous

13 August 2008 at 18:17

I actually learned Hindi from watching Hindi Movies. I noticed a lot of the words are similar to my language as well (Gujrati - a different language in India). Lol, I guess Bollyood has more to offer than just great Hindi Movies.