Raj Language Proper pukka
Early in the 17th century Britain began to take an interest in India, and the impact of its languages on English goes back almost as far. But it was the Raj —the British colonial rule—that fixed many Indian words in the language. SOME terms were consciously borrowed. In the 18th century a wealthy man who had made his fortune in India might be called a nabob, a word that came ultimately from Urdu (a language of northern India which took many words from Persian), and was originally the name for a Muslim official under the Mogul empire.
Sahib was a polite title for a man in British India, and memsahib for a woman—sahib came via Urdu from Arabic shib ‘friend, lord’, while the mem- in memsahib was an Indian pronunciation of ma'am. Other words have become so much part of the language that it is easy to forget their Indian origin. Living in a bungalow may seem completely part of the British scene, but the first ‘bungalows’ were cottages built in Bengal for early European settlers there, and the name comes from a Hindi word meaning ‘belonging to Bengal’.
If you make out a chit for someone's expenses, you are using a term that comes from Hindi citth ‘a note or pass’. British chef Jamie Oliver gleefully introduced pukka to millions of TV viewers in the slang sense ‘excellent’, but the word was being used in India as far back as the middle of the 17th century. Its first sense was ‘of full weight’, which gradually evolved into ‘certain, reliable’ and ‘genuine, authentic’, then ‘top-quality, impeccable’, and ‘socially acceptable, well brought up’. Jamie's sense is of early 1990s vintage.
The word is from Hindi pakk, meaning ‘cooked, ripe, or substantial’. And Indian cuisine has contributed other familiar terms, including curry, from a Tamil word adopted in the late 16th century, and kedgeree, from Hindi khichri, originally a dish of rice and pulses. Things first got cushy during the First World War. It was originally an Anglo-Indian word from Urdu kushi ‘pleasure’, going back to Persian kus. As well as describing an easy job or post, cushy could also be used in connection with a wound that was not dangerous or serious. Riders have been wearing jodhpurs since the late 19th century. The word comes from Jodhpur, a city in western India where similar garments are worn by men as a part of everyday dress.
The gymkhana, a children's event with races and other competitions on horseback, is now a staple of every pony club, but in Victorian India it was a public place with facilities for sports. The English form of the word, which comes from the Urdu term gendkhna, meaning ‘racket court’, has been influenced by the spelling of gymnastic. The pyjamas we put on at night are literally ‘leg clothing’—the word is from Urdu py ‘leg’ and jma ‘clothing’. They were originally loose silk or cotton trousers that both men and women wore in such countries as Turkey, Iran, and India, until Europeans living in these places started wearing them for bed.
A man might wear a cummerbund, a kind of sash, around his waist as part of evening dress for a smart party, but it was first worn in the Indian subcontinent by domestic staff and office workers of low status. The word is from Urdu kamar-band, from kamar ‘waist or groin’ and bandi ‘band’. Some Indian-based words may look misleadingly as though they come from familiar English words.
Shampoo, for example, has nothing to do with sham, or with poo. English speakers first came across the term in the 18th century in Turkish baths, where the original use was ‘to give a massage to’. The word itself is from Hindi cmpo!, an instruction to a masseur to ‘press!’. The 1930s slang word of approval, tickety-boo, has no association with tick or ticket, but probably comes from a Hindi expression thk hai ‘all right’.
The British rule of India as a Crown possession from 1858 to 1947 is known as the Raj, from the Hindi word rj ‘reign’. The Raj itself has long since passed into history, but the term is still with us. Evidence of its lasting impact on the language came in 2005, when the journalist Jeremy Paxman reached for it to describe the number of Scottish politicians at Westminster. ‘We live’, he said, ‘under a sort of Scottish Raj.’ See also horde, Indian, juggernaut, jungle, loot, thug, vindaloo
How to cite this entry: "Raj Language" Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins. by Julia Cresswell. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 14 January 2012
