Hinduism

Etymology

It is formed from English Hindu + -ism.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Hindu is from Persian هندو (hindū, “Indian”),^[7][3][1] which the OED gives together with Hindi and Urdu as the source,^[2] from Middle Persian hindūg (“a person from India”),^[2][1] and ultimately from Old Persian hindu (“an eastern province of the Achaemenid empire”),^[2][1] itself from Sanskrit सिन्धु (síndhu, “river; the Indus”).^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The religion of the Hindus: 1786, in the Asiatick Miscellany, the date of the OED's entry as revised in 2020^[2] and of Etymonline.^[3] Other dictionaries date it later: Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1809,^[8] the Shorter Oxford to the early 19th century,^[5] and Dictionary.com to 1820–30.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline calls the word a blanket term for the polytheism of India.^[3] Modern dictionaries define it more widely, as a body of social and cultural as well as religious beliefs and practices,^[8][2] and mention reincarnation and caste in it.^[9][5] The older spelling Hindooism is now archaic.^[5][9][4]

Timeline

• 1786 – a religious tradition of India.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this to 1809.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A major religious and cultural tradition of the Indian subcontinent, marked by belief in reincarnation and in many gods seen as aspects of one being or truth, and traditionally by a caste system.^[2][8][9][5]

Related words

• Hindu
• Hindi
• India
• Indus
• -ism

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins