naga

Etymology

It is borrowed from Sanskrit नाग (nāga, “serpent, snake”),^{[2][3][4][5][1]} which in Sanskrit also meant a part-snake, part-human creature.^[2] The further origin of the Sanskrit word is uncertain:^[6][3] the OED suggests it may be cognate with snake,^[2] and Wiktionary thinks it probably goes back to Proto-Indo-European *nogʷós (“naked”), making it a cognate of naked.^[1] The first English record has the form “Nag”, reflecting the dropping of the final vowel in colloquial South Asian speech.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A member of a race of serpent beings: 1785, as “Nag”, in C. Wilkins's translation of the Bhagavad Gita (“Bhăgvăt-Gēētā”).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The 1989 edition of the OED described the nagas of Hindu mythology as serpent-demons, the offspring of Kadru and the sage Kasyapa,^[7] and Etymonline as guardians of the under-regions.^[3] The revised OED's definition is broader: semi-divine creatures, often partly snakes, connected with rivers and rain.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds that they are recognized in Buddhism as well as Hinduism and live in a kingdom under the water.^[4] Brewer named Sesha, the sacred serpent of Vishnu, as their king.^[8]

Timeline

• 1785 – a semi-divine serpent being of Hindu mythology (as “Nag”).^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. In Hinduism and Buddhism, a member of a race of semi-divine beings that are part human and part serpent, or take the form of great snakes, and are spirits of water, rivers and rain.^[4][2][5]

Usage notes

The same spelling, usually capitalized, also names words of other origins: a naked Hindu ascetic, from a Hindi word for naked (1828);^[2][5] a group of peoples of north-eastern India and Myanmar and their Tibeto-Burman languages (1835), a name of uncertain origin, perhaps from a Sanskrit word for naked;^[2][5][9] and, in Australia, a loincloth, from an Aboriginal language (1907).^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Brewer, E. Cobham (1898), Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, new ed., London: Cassell
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins