hookah

Etymology

It is borrowed from Urdu حقہ (ḥuqqa),^[2][3][4][1] which is from Arabic حُقَّة (ḥuqqa, “small box, casket, jar”).^[5][4][1][6] Etymonline allows the word to have come through Hindi or Persian or directly from Arabic,^[6] and the American Heritage Dictionary routes the Urdu word through Persian.^[4] In Arabic it named the bottle through which the smoke is drawn, and Urdu extended it to the whole apparatus.^[5][6] Etymonline relates it to حُقّ (ḥuqq, “a hollow place”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

An Eastern pipe whose smoke is drawn through water: about 1680, in T. Bowrey's account of the countries around the Bay of Bengal.^[5] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the word to 1763,^[6][7] and the Shorter Oxford to the mid 18th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In English the word has kept its meaning.^[5][8] Collins notes that the pipe is used for smoking tobacco, marijuana and other substances, and gives hubble-bubble, kalian, narghile and water pipe as other names for it.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1680 – a pipe whose smoke is cooled by being drawn through water.^[5] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date it to 1763.^[6][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pipe of Eastern origin with a long flexible tube, the smoke being cooled by passing through water in a vessel; a water pipe or narghile.^[8][7][5]

Usage notes

It is also spelled hooka.^[8][7][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins