Words of Indian Origin

Hello Friends,

A very Happy Independence Day! Now, we may have won our independence from the English but not from the English language. We continue to use and mostly abuse the language, often in ways that an Englishman would not understand.

For example the word “prepone” is purely an Indian invention. Think about it, if prepone means doing something before the scheduled time and postpone is doing it after the scheduled time then what is the word for doing something on time? Pone? Does not make sense, right? But we use it and use it with chutzpah. Maybe it is our way of taking revenge against the English for ruling over us for more than 300 years. ;-)

But on a serious note, there are a lot of words in the English language that have Indian origins. A few of them are:

Nainsook:
A fine cotton fabric
Origin: nain = eye, sukh = pleasure. Something pleasurable to look at, which the fabric was.

Juggernaut:
A massive inexorable force or object that crushes whatever is in its path
Origin: From Jagannath of Puri. When the annual procession of Lord Jagannath takes place in Puri some people accidentally fall and are crushed under the chariot. It is obviously not possible to stop the chariot immediately as it is being pulled by a large number of devotees.

Nabob: (Pronounced NAY-bob)
A person of wealth and prominence.
Origin: From Nawab – a Governor under the Mughals.

Blighty:
England, home
Origin: The Hindi/Urdu bilayati/wilayati which means foreign.

Nirvana:
An idealized state or place free of pain, worries, etc.
Origin: From nirvana which means Freedom from the endless cycle of birth and death and related suffering.

On that note,

Jai Hind