शुभ दीपावली
Etymologically presents
Diwali Etymologies
Rows of lamps, rangoli at the door, sweets and fireworks: the festival of lights, and the words that came to English from Sanskrit, Hindi and the languages of India.
The festival of lights
Diwali, and the Sanskrit words that travelled furthest into English.
- Hindi dīvālī Diwali from Sanskrit dīpāvali “row of lamps” From dīpa, “lamp”, and āvali, “row”: the rows of oil lamps lit to welcome Lakshmi and to celebrate the victory of light over darkness. Deepavali keeps the fuller form. Read the full etymology →
- 1836 nirvana from Sanskrit nirvāṇa “blowing out” Literally the extinguishing of a flame: in Buddhist and Hindu thought, the going out of desire and suffering. The casual sense “bliss” came in the 20th century. Read the full etymology →
- 1827 karma from Sanskrit karma “action, deed” From kṛ, “to do, make”: the deeds of one life that shape the next. In English it has softened into fate, or simply what comes around. Read the full etymology →
- 1784 avatar from Sanskrit avatāra “descent” From ava, “down”, and tṛ, “to cross”: a god crossing down to earth in bodily form, as Vishnu does as Rama, whose return home Diwali celebrates. Online avatars arrived in the 1980s. Read the full etymology →
- 1610s guru from Sanskrit guru “heavy, venerable” A teacher of weight and dignity. Guru is a distant cousin of Latin gravis, “heavy”, and so of grave and gravity. Read the full etymology →
- 1808 mantra from Sanskrit mantra “instrument of thought” A sacred verse or formula, from man, “to think”, the root also behind mind. A slogan repeated in business is a mantra now too. Read the full etymology →
- 1670s pundit from Sanskrit paṇḍita “learned” A learned Brahmin, expert in law and scripture; in English, from the early 19th century, anyone paid to give an opinion. Read the full etymology →
- 1630s juggernaut from Sanskrit Jagannātha “lord of the world” A title of Krishna, whose vast chariot is pulled through the streets of Puri. European travellers told exaggerated tales of devotees crushed beneath it, and any unstoppable force became a juggernaut. Read the full etymology →
Sweets and spices
The kitchen at Diwali, and the long roads its words took to English.
- 1660s ghee from Hindi ghī Clarified butter, from Sanskrit ghṛta, “sprinkled”: the fuel of the diya and of countless Diwali sweets. Read the full etymology →
- 1590s jaggery from Portuguese jágara Unrefined cane sugar, through Portuguese and Malayalam from Sanskrit śarkarā, the very word that became sugar by way of Persian and Arabic. Read the full etymology →
- late 14th century cardamom from Greek kardámōmon An Indian spice with a Greek name: kárdamon, “cress”, and ámōmon, an aromatic plant. Read the full etymology →
- Old English ginger from Sanskrit śṛṅgavera Through Latin and Greek from Prakrit. The Sanskrit form looks like “horn-shaped”, for the knobbly root, but that may be a reinterpretation of an older Dravidian word. Read the full etymology →
- Old English pepper from Sanskrit pippalī Through Latin piper and Greek péperi, probably from the Sanskrit name of long pepper. One of the oldest Indian words in English. Read the full etymology →
- 1580s mango from Tamil māṅkāy Mā, the mango tree, and kāy, “fruit”, through Malay and Portuguese. Read the full etymology →
- 1680s curry from Tamil kaṟi “sauce” A sauce or relish to go with rice, written down by Portuguese and English traders and stretched to cover a whole cuisine. Read the full etymology →
- 1813 chutney from Hindi caṭnī Probably from caṭnā, “to lick”: something strong and tasty, eaten in small amounts. Read the full etymology →
Everyday English from India
Words you might use every day without knowing where they come from.
- 1670s bungalow from Hindi baṅglā “Bengali” A house “in the Bengal style”: a low, thatched, one-storey house with a veranda, built for Europeans in India. Read the full etymology →
- 1762 shampoo from Hindi cā̃po “press!” The imperative of cā̃pnā, “to press, knead”. It was first a massage at a bath; washing the hair came in the 1860s. Read the full etymology →
- 1776 jungle from Hindi jaṅgal From Sanskrit jaṅgala, “arid, desert”: rough, uncultivated land. The dense tropical forest is an English shift. Read the full etymology →
- 1800 pyjamas from Urdu pāy-jāma “leg garment” Loose trousers tied at the waist, from Persian pāy, “leg”, a cousin of foot. Read the full etymology →
- 1788 loot from Hindi lūṭ From Sanskrit luṇṭ, “to rob”. Plunder taken in war, and then, by the 1940s, slang for money. Read the full etymology →
- 1704 cheetah from Hindi cītā From Sanskrit citraka, “speckled”, a relative of chintz, the spotted printed calico. Read the full etymology →
- 1610s dungarees from Hindi ḍuṅgrī A coarse calico, named after Dongri, a district of Mumbai. Overalls of the same cloth took the name in the 1890s. Read the full etymology →
- 1752 bandana from Hindi bāṅdhnū Tie-dyeing, from bāṅdhnā, “to tie”, a cousin of English bind and bond. Read the full etymology →
Distant cousins
English and Sanskrit are both Indo-European languages, descended from one ancestor spoken some six thousand years ago. Light each lamp to meet an English word’s Sanskrit relative.
- brother Sanskrit bhrātṛ Latin frater and Sanskrit bhrātṛ share the same root. Bhai Dooj, the last day of Diwali, celebrates brothers and sisters.
- yoke Sanskrit yoga Both from a root meaning “to join”: Sanskrit yuga is a yoke, and yoga a joining or union.
- star Sanskrit tārā Old English steorra and Sanskrit tārā go back to the same root, which also gives Latin stella.
- new Sanskrit nava Old English nīwe, Latin novus and Sanskrit nava: Diwali begins the new year in parts of India.
- name Sanskrit nāman Old English nama, Latin nomen and Sanskrit nāman: still remarkably alike after thousands of years apart.
- mind Sanskrit manas From a root meaning “to think”, which also gave Sanskrit mantra and Latin mens.
- door Sanskrit dvār Doors are thrown open at Diwali to welcome Lakshmi. Old English duru and Sanskrit dvār are cousins, as is Greek thýra.
- widow Sanskrit vidhavā Old English widuwe and Sanskrit vidhavā, from a root meaning “to be separated”.